The Proper Use of Muggle Artifacts
by prodigalpen
Summary: After an incident with the Dursleys, Harry is taken off to a secret institute to help him control the power that has been building inside of him. Ships: Still working it out between two witches. Rating just in case I decide that I need it.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Anything that is clearly JK's is hers. Anything that isn't is probably mine, but who knows, I have read a lot of fanfics over the years so if I stole a bunny from you, let me know and I will give you credit if it is bothering you.

Also someone reviewed and reminded me where I got the psionic level system from. It is from EV:Nova an Ambrosia shareware game from like 10 years ago. So if you see it sporadically throughout the story, that is where it is from.

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><p>Harry slumped into his seat as the car pulled away from Kings Cross. He was not looking forward to the upcoming summer, and he couldn't see how his Aunt and Uncle could react in a positive manner to the warning they received from Moody and the gang. Sure enough a mile from the station Uncle Vernon began bellowing, "Who do those FREAKS think they are? Threatening us like that. You aren't worth the trouble boy, we should just leave you on the side of the road."<p>

Harry kept quiet, he didn't want to show up at Grimmauld Place and explain why he wasn't at home with his relatives. "What about that murdering godfather of yours? Why didn't he come to taunt us, still running from the law is he?" Harry winced as his fingernails began to puncture his palms. "With any luck Lord Voldywhatsit will kill all you freaks and we can live normal lives again."

This was too much for Harry, he wasn't sure exactly what the power was that was building up inside of him but he began to yell at his Uncle, "You stupid insolent vile fat man! He won't stop with just wizards who oppose him; his goal is to enslave your kind. Better yet he wants to wipe all of you out and have wizards ruling the world. You will not be safe, nobody will be safe until he is stopped."

His uncle spluttered and his aunt looked at him abashed, "If he ever came across and tried to kill one of us our army would shoot him dead. .50 caliber to the head and he'd be history." Said Vernon, in a manner that gave Harry the feeling that he thought the conversation was over.

Harry began to laugh, he didn't know why it was so funny, but he laughed. He kept laughing for half a mile before Vernon pulled over and turned to grab him, shaking him violently. "You stupid muggle," he choked out, "any fifth year could block a sniper shot. And don't get me started on Nukes. When you fire the missile he'd just apparate to Siberia and start over there. You. Can't. Win."

Vernon stopped shaking his nephew and got out of the car. He pulled open Harry's door and said "Out. Get out of my car, boy."

Harry sat resolutely next to his cousin, "No." Big meaty hands closed on his shoulders and he was forcibly ripped from the car. "I don't want you in my home any longer, freak, I don't care what you do but you're no longer welcome with us."

Harry frowned and looked at his Aunt, "Aunt Petunia you know what Dumbledore said." His aunt looked away from Harry and then down at her feet. "You can't kick me out Uncle Vernon." His uncle began to turn red, "The hell I can't!" he fumed, pulling Harry's trunk from the boot. Harry was feeling light headed, he didn't know what to do, "You can't!" he yelled, and with that outburst his entire world went white.

When he woke up he wasn't sure how much time had passed. Looking around, he paled at what he found. The Dursley's car was ten feet in the air hanging halfway out of a building, Dudley and Petunia passed out inside. Vernon was crumpled against the same building some fifteen feet away still holding onto what was left of Harry's trunk. He reached down and picked up his invisibility cloak and backpack and shoved one into the other. He collected the more personal objects that were strewn about and then took one more look at the street.

In the distance he could hear emergency vehicles coming closer, more and more muggles that had been standing around were beginning to stir. Harry began to walk away from the scene as fast as he could, but before he could get past the first block, black SUV's came out of nowhere and blocked his path. Men in dark suits and sunglasses filed out and began sweeping the area with strange devices. Almost as one they all stopped their sweeps with their devices pointed at him.

"Looks like the boy is the source, we should take him into custody." The men began to circle around him, a few pulling guns from their jacket pockets. Instinctively Harry drew his wand and backed up, slowly making his way to a wall he could rest his back against. The one that spoke before eyed Harry's wand before putting his wrist to his mouth before saying, "Weasley, looks like one of yours."

Harry's eyes flashed to the man when he heard the name of his best mate. "Did you just say Weasley?" He called to the man, keeping an eye on the other men surrounding him. The man said nothing to Harry but spoke into his radio, "Yeah its clear, apparate to my coordinates." With a loud crack Arthur Weasley apparated next to the lead suit. "Smith what do you mean its one of mine?" began Arthur before his eyes fell on Harry, "Oh Merlin, Harry its you…that explains a lot actually. Guys you can put your weapons down, Harry stow your wand before these muggles wake up."

Harry slowly returned his wand to his pocket before walking up to Mr. Weasley, "Sir, what exactly is going on, who are these people? Why are you working with them?" Mr. Weasley put a finger up to Harry and then put a hand out to the nearest suit, who handed over the device he was using earlier. Pointing it at Harry he raised his eyebrows at whatever the device was telling him. Turning to the man he called Smith he said, "I'm taking Harry to headquarters, I'll send the Obliviators back to help you out." The man nodded and began barking orders to the others. Arthur grabbed Harry's arm and disapparated both of them from the street.

They appeared in a very nice office with pictures of redheads moving back and forth across the desk. Looking around Harry said, "Mr. Weasley I thought you worked for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department at the ministry." He took the offered seat and Mr. Weasley sat behind his desk, "Technically I do. Harry what do you know about mind magic, what the muggles call psionics?" Harry thought for a minute and said, "Well there is legilimancy and occlumency right? Is there more to the field than that?"

His friend's dad smiled at him, "Much more Harry. A very long time ago, back in Merlin's time when wizards weren't so secretive, a brilliant muggle developed a device that took the limit off of how much of the brain a human has access to. Wizards use slightly more than muggles to begin with and he figured that if he increased the efficiency of his own brain he would be able to do magic." Harry nodded, remembering his biology class in elementary school and learning that humans use only ten percent of their brains.

"The problem was that it didn't work for everyone. When a pureblood wizard the likes of Lucius Malfoy found out about the device, he attempted to destroy it to keep the muggles under his thumb. The artifact was never fully described so it could never be recreated, but we know that a large black stone that we think was a meteorite powered it. When the wizard destroyed it, he sent shards of it flying across the isles and the some of the dust made it into the atmosphere.

Years later the council that eventually formed the Ministry of Magic found that muggle children were showing aptitudes for something similar to mind magic. These were non-magical kids who were only able to read a few minds or completely block out attempts at legilimancy. That's when they formed my department, and together with some muggle authorities they built these headquarters to help both worlds deal with children who have aptitude for such things. Everyone since the explosion of the artifact has been classified with some sort of aptitude level. We have these tests in both muggle and magical kindergarten programs so we can catch anomalies early."

Harry nodded, he had heard of psionics in books that he had knicked from Dudley. The leader of the X-Men comics he read had telepathic powers too, he reminded Harry of Dumbledore sometimes. "But Mr. Weasley, what does this have to do with me?"

Mr. Weasley stood and came around the desk, leaning against it and facing Harry. "Well, first let me tell you about the classifications we have. Most muggles are considered T5s. They have absolutely no aptitude for any psionic ability. Most if not all wizards are at least T4s; they are able to learn some mind magic spells with practice, things such as the Confundus Charm and the Memory Charm are mild mind spells. Those that can learn and implement legilimancy and occlumency are T3's, which aren't that abnormal as far as wizards go because you need to be at least a T3 to become an Auror. You won't find that in any Auror handbook but trust me we test for it. We assumed with your aptitude for throwing off the Imperius and the headway you've been making with your occlumency that you're a T3. Professor Snape is a T2, he is very skilled at all types of mind magic, as Dumbledore who is a T1, taught him all he knows. He-who-must-not-be-named is also a T1, but because of Severus' dedicated subterfuge he is able to stay one step ahead of Him."

Harry nodded, "So I'm a T3? Doesn't that mean I should be having a better time with Occlumency?"

Mr. Weasley nodded, "Well yes, and I've scanned you a few times over the years, you were a T4 until your encounter at the Tri-Wizard tournament, since then you've been pinging as a T3. Today however you came up as a T0." He watched as Harry took in the information.

"What does that mean? I thought the classification only went to T1?" Mr. Weasley nodded, "Well it normally does, the last suspected T0 was Merlin but we're only going on rumor rather than actual proof. You're going to need to stay here this summer to get your power under control before returning to school in September; I'll be speaking to Albus about this tonight. I'll pull some strings so that you can have your own room and I'll allow you to furnish it however you'd like."

Harry started to look concerned so he put a hand on his shoulder, "You haven't done anything wrong Harry, but you are soon going to be accidentally reading people's minds. We're not sure what your range will be, but if you don't start to build some mental shields and learn to control your power you'll be bombarded with thoughts from everyone in a 1 block radius, minimum. We just want to help you. I'll obviously be keeping this from the press, but I'll keep Ron, Ginny, and Hermione in the loop if you wish."

Surprisingly Harry shook his head, "Just tell them that I'm training, don't tell them why. I don't want them to be worried about me reading their minds when they see me again…I don't know how well they'll handle it." Mr. Weasley nodded, "Understandable Harry, I will inform them that you are away at a training camp and that they can contact you through me. Is that acceptable?" Harry nodded; Mr. Weasley was a lot easier to deal with than Dumbledore ever was.

The two men left the office and walked down the hall and up a few flights of steps, stopping on the fourth floor, which was labeled "Residence Hall". They found Harry a room and Mr. Weasley asked if Harry had any notes he wanted to pass to his friends. Harry went to retrieve parchment and a quill from his bag but found his quills snapped and his inkbottle smashed. "I guess my episode earlier destroyed my things, I'll get restocked and write them a note soon. Are all the other patients here aware of the magical world?"

"They're students Harry, not patients, we're not trying to cure anything, just teach you control. Most students are aware however there are a few who haven't discovered magic yet, but we tend not to keep it a secret in here. Most kids find out by the second week and are amazed by what magic can do. We'll start you training on control, then after that we'll teach you the kinds of things you can do with your psionic abilities. You won't have class with other students until you can block them out. Not that there are many people here over the summer."

Harry nodded and looked around the bleak room as Mr. Weasley headed out. It held a bed and a dresser, not unlike those he had at Hogwarts. As he thought of his room in Hogwarts the room began to change, the white walls were slowly replaced by stone walls, the bed gained curtains of Gryffindor scarlet, and the carpet took on a similar hue. One of the agents from the street arrived with the remains of his school trunk and set it at the foot of the four-poster. Harry frowned at the bent metal that was all that remained of Hedwig's cage, happy that he had sent her ahead from the station. Suddenly the cage began to untwist itself, slowly retaking its original shape.

Harry eyed it warily and looked at the man in the suit, "Did you do that?" the man shook his head and said, "Must have been you Mr. Potter, I've seen the kids here fix things like that all the time. Some of them with their wands but more often it happens just like that."

"A lot of my possessions were damaged during the incident, is there any way I can get either an escort to Diagon Ally or have someone do some shopping for me?" The man relayed Harry's request into his radio and then gave him a response, "Once you get your shields established and feel up to going out Mr. Weasley says he'll take you on a trip when he knows your friends won't be anywhere near London. In the meantime you can hit the school shop for some basic necessities," the man reached into his wallet and gave Harry a few fifty pound notes, "I know for a fact that you can pay me back once you get to Gringotts so don't argue with me about this."

Harry nodded and said, "And how am I supposed to pay you back when I don't know your name?" The man slapped his forehead with his hand and then offered it to Harry, "Jake Dennings, squib, T3." Harry shook it and said, "Harry Potter, boy-who-won't-die, Hogwarts Golden Boy, T0". Dennings took his hand and then stopped and stared as Harry said 'T0', "Uh Harry, you might not want to advertise that. Just tell people you're a T1 and don't worry too much about the ratings." Harry nodded in understanding, "Yeah I guess those that aren't wizards would start treating me like everyone else does once they learn about my status huh?" The man laughed and said "Exactly. The store is down on ground level with the mess, the gym, and the library. Someone will wake you in the morning with your schedule for the week. Breakfast is at 7, Lunch at noon, Dinner at 7. If you owl shows up send her to the owlery on the roof. Any questions Potter?" Again Harry shook his head and the man left the room.

After examining the room for a few minutes Harry found that even the loose brick under his bed in the wall was there. Shaking his head at the realism he walked out of the room and headed toward the stairs. A call of, "Oi! New kid!" from a room he was passing stopped him. Backpedaling a few feet Harry looked into the room to find a room that was reminiscent of the Gryffindor common room. Lounging around a center console that housed a TV were three teenagers ranging from fourteen to eighteen, all holding odd objects attached to cables that lead toward the TV.

"Hi, I'm Harry," he said walking into the room. On the screen he saw bright colors and the word "Paused" brightly displayed across the screen. "I'm Mark," said the blond haired teen who had called to him, "that ginger over there is Coggy," this came with a cry of indignation from Coggy, "and that tall bloke is Simon." referring to the tall dark haired kid sitting furthest from the door.

"Nice to meet you guys, what are you up to?" Mark gestured toward the TV, "Simon's parents sent him an N64, it just came out this week, want to play?" Harry shrugged and took a seat, grabbing the three-pronged controller the same way the other boys were. After a few false starts Harry was having a blast, despite having no idea what he was doing, the rules of Mario Kart weren't complicated so he was racing along as a green dinosaur in a car.

While they played and when they weren't yelling obscenities at one another, the boys got to know one another. Mark and Harry were the youngest and the only wizards. Mark had been there since he was 6 and while he normally would go home each summer, his parents were celebrating their 20th anniversary so he was "stuck at school" for the duration. Simon and Coggy were both in their last years of their programs and were going to be trained by the muggle military to become special ops. Harry perked up at learning about that, "Do they teach us to fight with our abilities here? I really don't know what is going on, I think I'm only going to be here for the summer."

Simon shrugged, "In a way they do, they teach you to control and focus your power, once you get past that phase, using it as a weapon or using it to tie your shoe is limited only by your imagination. Nothing like your magic where there are specific incantations, with psy you can change your environment to suit your will, or at least as far as your powers will take you. Coggy and I are both T2s and we can take care of ourselves pretty well." Harry nodded and was thinking about how he could use this new ability against Tom. Thinking so hard in fact that he missed the next question from Coggy, "Huh? Sorry I was thinking."

"Do you know what your rating is?" Harry looked at the boys and examined their reactions as he said, "I'm a T1 apparently." He watched their eyes go wide, but not nearly as wide as any given stranger in Diagon Ally when they spotted his scar. "That's pretty cool Harry, I've only heard about a few of those in the last decade, you're going to have loads of fun, don't let the instructors scare ya." Harry grinned and then laughed as his stomach rumbled, "I guess its time for me to get some food." They all looked at the wall clock and found it was quarter after seven. They paused their game and filed out of the room and down the stairs.

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><p>AN: I'm still looking for a beta reader so please message me and let me know if you're interested.

-ProdigalPen


	2. Chapter 2

When Harry returned to his room he found a pile of letters from the Weasleys and Hermione, as well as one from Professor Dumbledore. Deciding to get the worst of them over with he reached for the letter from Dumbledore and gently broke the seal and pulled out the letter.

Harry,

While it pleases me to hear that you have finally shown some aptitude for mind magic, it saddens me that you caused a rift with your relatives in the process. As such I have taken the liberty to modify the wards on their home so that they will be protected in your absence. I see now that forcing you to live with them was not the best laid plan, and I hope that you can begin to forgive me for the ways that I have wronged you thus far. Arthur wasn't very forthcoming about the facility you're staying at but he assured me that it is well warded and not many in either the muggle or magical world know of its existence. I took the liberty to ask Ginevra to look after Hedwig until you join the Weasleys at the Burrow the last week in August. In the meantime if you have any need to send a letter Fawkes has offered his services to you.

Dobby has also been asking after you since he heard about your accident this afternoon so do take the time to summon him and reassure him that you are indeed in one piece. As of right now the cover story is that you were attacked in transit from King's Cross and it was deemed necessary to start your training early this summer. Arthur has shared with me your concerns about revealing the type of training you're receiving to your friends and I agree wholeheartedly with your decision. However, secrets are better shared sooner than later as you have so thoroughly taught me, so please don't keep your friends in the dark too long.

I have obtained clearance for Auror Tonks to come and train you in various combat techniques that you may find useful in future encounters with Tom and his allies. I hope that you have a wonderful summer, and I hope that we can get together before term starts to have an open conversation about where we stand, both as teacher and student as well as friends.

Yours,  
>Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore<p>

Harry eyed the letter suspiciously and set it to the side. Turning away from the desk and facing the open center of the room he called, "Dobby!" and the small elf popped into existence a few feet away from him before launching himself into Harry's chest. "Oh great Harry Potter sir! Dobby thought you was dead! Dobby saw the car in the wall Harry Potter sir, Dobby feared the worst!" Harry slowly dislodged the wiggling elf from himself and held him at arms length, "I'm fine Dobby really, thank you for worrying. Dumbledore said you had been asking about me. How are you finding working at Hogwarts?" He set the elf on the floor and Dobby began to bounce in place, "Dobby loooooves working at the castle Harry Potter sir, but if Harry Potter sir needs anything Dobby would be glad to help him." Harry grinned and thanked him before sending him off. Harry then turned to his desk and found a pile of parchment and a few quills along with a bottle of ink, which sat upon a note from Mr. Weasley.

Harry,

Let me know if you need to replace anything else. We can take care of your tab when we go to Diagon Ally before school starts."

Arthur

Harry smiled and opened the letter from Ron.

Harry,

Tough luck mate, you always seem to get the short end. I'm glad to hear that you'll be training because that means you'll be able to teach Hermione and I all the cool stuff you'll be learning. Mum says you'll be here the last week in August and that we're to use Fawkes to send our mail to you, how cool is that? I've got to go, the Cannons are playing Puddlemore on the wireless and the games about to start. Let me know if I can send you anything, mum says "Including food" so don't hesitate to ask.

Ron

Grinning, Harry dreamily thought of Mrs. Weasley's treacle tart. He pulled the next letter from the envelope Ron's came in.

Harry,

Are you okay? Nobody told us exactly what happened just that you were attacked. I hope you showed them not to mess with you anymore. Dad says you've gone into some sort of training program to help you fight Riddle. I'm glad to hear it, you need all the help you can get. Hedwig is being a dear and helping keep all the field mice out of the garden, mum is over the hill about it. Hope you're not cooped up somewhere, write back soon.

Ginny

The thought of Hedwig flying free in the country and hunting field mice brought a smile to his face. He reached for the final letter from Hermione.

Harry,

Mr. Weasley just stopped by while we were packing for our trip and told me that you're in some training program run by the ministry. I hope that wasn't code for "Locked up in the loony bin" and if it was I don't know how you'd be able to tell me one way or the other. I hope you're learning a lot and you're learning something that you can teach us when we get back to school. Have you thought about asking Dumbledore if you can run the DA as an official club? Actually don't worry about it, I'll send him a letter right now. I was told to ask Fawkes to take this to you so you're obviously somewhere they don't want a lot of owls flying in and out of. Stay safe.

Hermione

Harry laughed at Hermione's suspicions and set that letter aside as well. He wrote a similar letter to each of his friends, assuring them that he hadn't been abducted and that anyplace was better than the Dursleys so even if he had been it wouldn't be a big deal. He wrote a letter to Dumbledore agreeing to the meeting before the start of term and thanking him for the training from Tonks. He asked about using magic during training and asked if he could possibly be trained in Apparition. Sealing each letter he then called to Fawkes and the beautiful phoenix flashed into his room and alighted on the edge of the remains of his trunk. "Thanks for helping me out this summer Fawkes, I really appreciate being able to contact people." The phoenix let out a trill of reassurance before flying to the desk and taking his letters with a flash.

A few minutes later Harry was re-reading Dumbledore's letter when two more appeared on his desk with a flash. Opening them he saw that the first was from Dumbledore promising him that he was no longer being monitored for underage magic. He went on to say that he would make sure that Tonks included Apparition in his training regime because it could be a useful tool for escaping a bad situation. The second letter was from Gringotts.

Lord Potter,

Your presence is requested on August 1 for the reading of the will of Lord Sirius Ogden Black. If that date does not suit you please alert us by July 20.

May your gold always flow,  
>Griphook, Potter Estate Manager<p>

Harry stared, baffled at the title he was addressed with. He was a Lord? After a few minutes he realized he hadn't read the rest of the note and by the time he caught up he had tears threatening to show themselves. He wiped them away and reached for his wand. Calmly he transfigured two pieces of parchment into an "In" and "Out" box and set them on one side of his desk. He wrote a reply to Gringotts and set it in his "Out" box and then decided to get ready for bed. It was then that he realized that he only had the clothes on his back to live with. He rubbed his face with his hand and got up and headed toward Mark's room. He knocked and soon enough Mark was there looking at his curiously. "What's up Harry?" Harry sighed again and explained his situation to his new friend, asking him where the school store was. "Well it's probably closed by now, but that shouldn't be a problem, we'll just sneak in and leave the money in the till." He led the way down to the first floor and walked to the school store and then around the corner to the side door that the employees used. Harry pulled out his wand to unlock the door when Mark put his hand on his wrist, "You would leave a magical signature, I however…" Mark held his hand over the bolt and Harry heard the tumbler release and Mark tried the handle. The door swung open and he gave Harry a thumbs up.

Quietly they stalked around the room, picking out a few solid colored t-shirts for Harry along with a few pairs of sweatpants and gym shorts along with a weeks worth of boxers and socks. Totaling the cost in his head Harry left the full hundred pounds Dennings had given him, leaving the last ten as an apology for the breaking and entering. As they left Mark did the same thing to the lock before they headed back up to their rooms. Harry thanked his new friend and entered his room, filling his dresser with his new "purchases". He changed into a pair of gym shorts and a white t-shirt and climbed under his Gryffindor covers and fell promptly to sleep, his mind grateful for the break from consciousness.

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><p>Pain welcomed Harry back to consciousness. He groaned as voices, thoughts, and emotions bombarded his brain. He felt a cool hand on his forehead and a calm voice above the din, "Harry focus on my voice. Watch as I build these shields and mimic me in your own mindscape." He watched as walls were built on the outside of his mind, slowly lowering the volume of noise and the number of sources bombarding him. Slowly he built up his own walls, and then brick by brick his walls became the walls of Hogwarts on the very edge of his mind. Towers sprouted with gargoyles perched upon the parapets. Going further he envisioned the wards of the castle stretching across the sky, connecting his walls and towers across his mind with a solid yet translucent shield. Finally he built great doors in the front of his mind guarded by fierce goblins riding dragons. The voices were gone and the walls that were built outside his mind slowly fell away and he heard a knocking on his shields. Somehow recognizing the presence he opened a small one way hole, allowing a voice to carry through, "Good Potter, now hold the shields as long as you can, learn every inch of them, know what every detail looks like, make them your own." Harry felt himself appear along the walls, he walked around the perimeter of his mind, noting the position of each gargoyle and taking the time to name them.<p>

He opened his eyes and found himself alone. Looking around he saw that his door was still closed and it didn't look like anything had been disturbed. Thankful for the lack of voices hammering on his brain he fell back into his pillows, turning one over to rest his forehead against the cool underside. His respite did not last for long however because not fifteen minutes later his shields fell and the voices were back.

"Did I lock the front door?"

"I hope this guy pays me tonight."

"I think I just threw up food that I ate last week."

"God, I don't know if you're listening but if you are please take care of Nana, mum says I need to pray for her and I don't know how else to ask…"

Harry did his best to focus on his shields again and quicker than last time they sprang into existence, every brick, goblin, and gargoyle in its place. He sighed and flipped his pillow again, hoping they would hold until morning.

He was sadly mistaken an hour later when he was awoken by more meaningless sentences that seemed to think that they were the most important things in the world. Again he focused and threw up his shields, this time however he noticed how much easier it was than the time before, how much stronger they felt from the time before that. Going on this line he dropped his shields briefly and then threw them up again. Once again they were stronger, more responsive to his will. He grinned and repeated the process five more times before finally leaving them up and going back to sleep.

Somewhere else in the facility a man and a woman seated across from one another let their eyes come back into focus. "He's a quick learner," she said, smiling to her friend, "He built his shields in minutes and then learned how they work, how to make them stronger, make them last longer. He's a natural, I'm surprised you never realized it." Dumbledore looked down at his hands in contemplation, "I do not think that I gave him the proper resources or environment to learn in. I was too afraid to delve into his mind this past year; too afraid He would realize our connection…" he trailed off, his voice growing sad. The woman put her hand on his, "Albus you cannot be blamed for those fears, and you are indeed human despite what everyone seems to think. I can work with him to prepare him for what is to come, it may not be the way that you would have done it but in the end he'll be able to defend himself, psychically at least." Dumbledore reached into a pocket and removed a small bag, offering it to his companion before removing a lemon drop and popping it into his mouth, "Thank you for being open to Nymphadora Tonks coming and teaching Harry to keep his magical ability up to snuff." She grinned, "Of course Albus, I have a few Unspeakables as trainers in both the mind and the magical arts, but having a familiar face would work better for him. She should come on Tuesdays and Fridays after lunch. Her 'classes' will be supervised by one of my Unspeakables to ensure that Harry is approaching his spell work from the proper angle."

After bowing his head graciously, Dumbledore stood and shook her hand before walking to the hearth and flooing back to his office. The woman focused her mind once more, projecting herself into Harry's room, smiling to herself as he slept soundly and then went further, ghosting along the outsides of his shields. Grinning to herself she saluted the goblins as she flew by, proudly examining the airtight shields. Pulling back she ran her ghostly hand across his forehead before returning to her body. He would be an interesting student indeed.


	3. Chapter 3

Harry awoke the next morning and for a minute forgot where he was. When it all came back to him he checked the status of his shields and found them sound and secure. Working on his theory from the night before he dropped and erected them very swiftly, flinching in the moment they were down. He showered and pulled on a pair of sweats and a t-shirt before heading out of his room. He stopped to bang on Mark's door before heading down to breakfast.

A few minutes after he sat down with his food Mark came in looking daggers at him. Considering where they were, Harry wondered if he was actually going to get hurt. "Think you're funny Potter? It is entirely too early for anyone to be awake." Harry grinned and stabbed his eggs; "You are such a crybaby, worse than my mate Ron." Mark glared again and then looked to the buffet of food across the hall. Slowly he mentally sent his tray along the line, adding food to it occasionally before he hit the end and began bringing it toward them. Halfway across the hall a kind looking older woman intercepted his tray and said, "Marcus Smith, you know the rules, no telepathy at meals." Mark groaned and got up, retrieving his tray from the woman before sitting back down. The woman followed him to the table and turned to Harry, "So I hear you had to be…let in to the school store last night Mr. Potter." Harry looked down at his sweatpants and shirt sheepishly before saying, "Yes ma'am, I didn't have any of my things after my incident yesterday…" he stopped because she seemed to be stifling a laugh, "Its quite alright Mr. Potter, I know you would have waited until morning if Mr. Smith here hadn't opened the door for you. I'm glad you were able to find some clothes, I'll talk to Arthur about taking you shopping now that your shields are active."

Harry nodded eagerly and then thought back to the night before, "Were you the voice I heard ma'am?" She smiled down at him, "Yes, and you took to my instruction quite well. I'm Headmistress Elena Smith, this hooligan," she cuffed Mark on the head, "is my nephew and should know better. Your classes start in an hour in room five, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with different instructors each day. Tuesday mornings will be spent in room two with Mark here, and Tuesday afternoons will be spent in room one with Auror Tonks working on your spell work. Any questions?" Harry nodded, "Am I allowed to use my wand here? I don't want to get you guys in trouble with the ministry." Again she smiled at him, her gray eyes twinkling not unlike Dumbledore's, "We have many wards in place to keep such things from happening to our students, much like Hogwarts does so fear not." Harry smiled back and said thank you, then returned to his breakfast. She thwacked Mark again before heading to the head table, summoning a tray just as Mark had. "She is such a bloody hypocrite, but I love her so I can't blame her." Mark shook his head and then laughed as his aunt stuck her tongue out at him.

Harry got up after a filling breakfast and waved goodbye to Mark as he headed to room five to start his education. The room he found would have made Hermione's year, it was filled wall to wall with books. A young man sat at a desk with one chair opposite him, flipping through a book very quickly. Looking up as the door closed he smiled and said, "Ah, Mr. Potter is it? Welcome to the arsenal." Harry looked around questioningly, looking for a weapon rack. "You will not find any physical weapons here, for a psion you are only as deadly as your imagination. My job is to fill that brain of yours with as much information as possible so that when you're fighting, or simply doing chores, you find a creative way to be as efficient as possible." He motioned to the seat in front of him, "Elena tells me that your shields are more than adequate, do you mind if I take a look?" Harry took the proffered seat and gave his ascent. He fell back into his mind; looking over the vast walls he built to protect himself. Floating on the outside was the man, who seemed to be talking with the goblins guarding the gate. Floating over himself he heard the man trying to make the goblins smile with some off color jokes. Harry rolled his eyes and pushed out, expelling the man from his mindscape.

"Now that you've examined my walls, how about you tell me your name?" The man grinned and held his hand out, "Jacob Baker." Harry shook his hand and then said, "So how am I supposed to get all this information," he gestured to the books around him, "into here?" he pointed at his head. Baker reached for a tome from a shelf behind him and handed it to Harry, "Reach out to this tome with your mind. Imagine the people that have handled it before you, feel their presence on the pages, now feel how they interpreted the information and brought it into their consciousness." Harry concentrated on the pages and saw hundreds of ghostly hands opening the book and flipping the pages, the information almost tangible as a beam of energy coalescing toward his chest. Thinking quickly he tilted the book and adjusted the beam to hit his forehead. As the beam hit him just to the left of his scar he gained not only the information in the book but the way its previous readers used the information. "Woah, that was a crazy rush. Is it like that every time?" Harry looked at the spine of the book and saw that the book was on Kendo, the Japanese art of sword fighting, as he read it he realized he already knew that, and he felt that if he had a sword he could do some damage. "When you take in information like this you'll find it easier to recall at a later date. Tell me what page the book discusses hand positioning for a defensive stance." Without thought the answer was on his tongue, "Page 107, there are three different hand positions for the three defensive stances."

Baker smiled and handed Harry another book, "Most adepts run out of room after storing about 20 books like this. We give them to you in a specific order so that you learn things that you absolutely need to know. You won't be proficient in the skills you're learning about because you haven't built muscle memory yet, but you will be able to build that with practice." Harry eyed the pile of books that Baker was stacking onto the desk in front of him, "Why do I get the feeling you don't think I'm going to have a problem with the number of books I can maintain?" The man grinned, "I was told to push you, so get through the basics and we can start picking fun books to shove into your head." Harry rolled his eyes and worked through the pile in front of him, he learned the history of psionics and the history of the school. He continued to learn about famous people who happened to be psionic and how they used their powers for the greater good. He saw a trend in the stories about praising those that did well and shunning those that blundered or used their unique power for evil purposes. "A bit one sided isn't this stuff?" Baker winced, "A bit, but there really weren't many of us to go evil and those that did were hunted down and disposed of by one of the council. Okay we're at 15/20. I'm going to have you take in some books on muggle weaponry and other non-magical solutions that could help you in a pinch." Harry, being a teenager and thinking swords are cool, took in another book on kendo as well as a few scrolls on ninjutstu. With his last book he searched the tomes until he found the one he was looking for. He found a book on pureblood ancestry and traditons and decided to add that to his reference knowledge.

Feeling like his head was exploding he massaged his temples and looked at Baker who was grinning, "You have plenty of room in there, any knowledge past this that you add may react like the information you just stored, or like photographic memory, or like your old memory, repetition creating neural pathways the old fashion way. Try falling into your mindscape and organizing the information into a library, time moves quicker there so take your time. If it gets to lunch time I'll pull you out and feed you." Harry nodded, and sat back in the comfortable chair, letting his mind relax he found himself in Hogwarts' library, though the shelves were empty he found the books that he had absorbed laying in piles on a nearby table. Deciding to sort his knowledge by subjects he re-imagined the library and began to sort his books. Near the bottom of the pile he found books containing his knowledge from before the summer, everything he knew compiled into different books. Some not as big as others, some he wished were bigger; he was determined to make some changes.

He came to his senses just as Baker came back with a tray of food. "All done then?" he asked, handing the tray to Harry. He nodded and dug into the food, somehow starving.

* * *

><p>After finishing his lunch he said goodbye to his 'weapons' instructor and headed back to his room. Changing his mind halfway he wandered around the administrative wing of the school until he found the Headmistress' office. Knocking quietly he was beckoned with a polite, "Come in Harry." He opened the door to find an office more akin to a muggle headmistress, full of dark wood and leather. She gestured to a chair across from her and he took a seat. "How was your first lesson?" She asked as she offered him a tin of biscuits. He took one and leaned back in his chair, "Interesting, I think I can hold a lot more knowledge than I went through today. I was wondering if Mr. Weasley and I could go shopping for a few things? While I'm used to baggy clothes, I'd much rather have some color in my life." He picked at the white t-shirt he was wearing to amplify his point. She grinned before narrowing her eyes at him, "How are your shields? Do you think you'd be up to facing downtown London? That's a lot of thoughts to be banging at the gates." Harry thought for a moment before reaching out with his mind and probing a muggle outside to determine where they actually were. Without being too invasive he constructed a map of the area based on his experiences. "Trick question," he began, "we are already in central London, unless that bloke outside is terribly confused." The grin reappeared on the Headmistress' face, "Good, I just wanted to see if you had actually learned anything this morning. Did you learn how to mentally 'tap' people and how to construct a link?"<p>

Harry nodded, "Yes, but I wasn't sure about the etiquette for it among psions and wizards. Most wizards are a bit possessive of their thoughts, so I'm not sure how to go about it." Arching her fingers much like Dumbledore, Elena sat back in her chair, "Among psions, as long as you've met before, they can identify you from your mental signature and will generally allow the link if you knock nicely. Here let me show you." First Harry felt the gentle stroking from the night before, recognizing it as Elena he shaped his shields to allow her mild access, just enough for her voice to enter his mind, "As you can see, you recognized me from our earlier encounter, I'm going to tap Mark and have him give it a shot." A minute later Harry felt a separate but distinct presence knocking, without much thought he identified the presence as Mark and allowed him similar access, and then with a twist of his shields he connected the boy with his aunt in a three way conversation. "Hey Mark, thanks for helping me with this. This whole mind-speech thing is so cool!" Looking up at Elena he saw a look of surprise on her face, focusing on the link he created he asked "Did I do something wrong? You look surprised." She shook her head and regained her composure, "Nothing Harry, you just showed initiative by combining our links, nobody showed you how to do it, or that it was even possible, and yet you figured it out on your own. You have a lot of potential for this I'm very excited to see where you are at the end of the summer." At this Mark broke in, "Yeah, the next thing we usually try to determine the distance you can hold the link at, once you get Translocation down we'll test that out." Mark broke the link and a few seconds later Elena did as well.

"Yes, as Mark mentioned we'll test your distance once you can travel on your own. Before you ask, Translocation is much like apparition except you can go to places you've never been before and, if you can link with someone that is there already, build a detailed mental image from their memories and transport yourself more accurately. Doing this with another psion is a slightly different type of knock that asks for that information specifically, for our combat destined students it is an invaluable skill." Harry nodded, "Sounds exciting, well I'll go ask Mr. Weasley if he has time to take me." Elena motioned him out, following him to the door and closing it behind him. Shaking her head at Harry's apparent aptitude for the mind arts she returned to her desk where she was writing reports for the Wizengamot.

Going down a few doors and sensing Mr. Weasley behind a mostly closed door he knocked as he pushed it open, calling into the room "Mr. Weasley?" The red-haired older man looked up from a pile of parchment he was working his way through. "Harry! How are you coping at the Institute? Everyone treating you okay?" Harry nodded and decided to push straight to his point of being there, " I was wondering if you'd arrange for me to get into Diagon Ally and maybe muggle London this afternoon and evening, I've already cleared it with the Headmistress, but I thought I'd ask you since you'd be in charge of my security detail." He said it seemingly all in one breath, causing his best mate's dad to burst into laughter. "We aren't really authority figures for you Harry, you don't need my permission to go, but I will contact some members of the Order to see if they can spare the time to happen to be in the Ally starting in say, an hour?" Harry nodded and thanked him profusely, "Harry its fine, meet me here in an hour and we'll floo into the Leaky cauldron." Harry nodded and left the room, excited to replace the gym clothes he was living in.

An hour later Harry came barreling down the stairs, nearly knocking Simon and Coggy down in the process. "Sheesh Harry, in a rush are we?" Harry paused long enough to call back, "Going shopping, and no quips about me being a girl, all my stuff got destroyed." Both boys put their hands up defensively, "Easy there Potter, we're really not THAT interested in your life." They both winked and then waved before continuing their trip up the stairs. In Arthur's office Harry found Alastor Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt waiting for him by the fireplace. "Potter! Get your wand out of your pocket, you'll blow…" Harry interrupted him by pulling his wand and, flicking it carelessly at his left wrist, cast a light sticking charm and affixed it to his forearm. "Er, good thinking, right then we don't expect anyone is out to get you right now, the Deaters took a pretty hard hit last week at the ministry, just don't dawdle if you can help it." Harry rolled his eyes and, following Kingsley, took the floo out of the Institute and into the Leaky Cauldron.

After greeting Tom behind the bar, the trio made their way through the back and into the Ally proper. Not waiting for his escort Harry bee lined for Gringott's, intending to withdraw as much as his trust account would allow in order to replace his lost possessions. Used to guarding politicians neither auror reacted to being treated as if they weren't there, they understood that Harry was sick of being guarded like a golden Buddha and kept a discreet distance. Walking up to the teller he greeted the goblin, reading his nameplate he said, "Good afternoon Rustknot, I'm interested in withdrawing some funds from my trust account, however due to a recent mishap, most of my belongings, including my Gringott's key were destroyed, is there anything I can do about that?" The goblin eyed him suspiciously before pulling out a stone block the size of a textbook and placing it in front of Harry. On top was an indent that was clearly for his hand, and in the center of the palm was a sharp stone spike. Getting the idea Harry placed his hand down, fingertips first, and then pushed down on the spike until he felt it pierce his skin before pulling his hand away, sucking at the wound.

A scratching sound came from the stone and "Lord Harry Potter-Black" appeared across the top of the block. "What does that mean, Potter-Black? I'm not a Black, at least not last time I checked." The goblin held up a knobby finger and hit a bell that sat beside his teller station. Almost immediately a goblin approached form behind, Rustknot spoke to him in Gobbledygook and he ran off. Turning to Harry Rustknot said, "Last week the will of the head of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black came into effect, from what I can tell you inherited at least his title. I sent for a copy of the will to be sure. Usually we wait a month before reading the will to investigate all parties, but if I remember correctly, you're the only one named." Harry nodded, "Yeah, I got notification of the reading yesterday." Thinking about Sirius brought up all sorts of emotions he didn't want to be having, but since he had a decent control over his mind, he was able to push them aside for now, though he knew from his "reading" that he'd have to deal with them sooner rather than later.

A few minutes later the goblin runner returned with a sheaf of parchment and handed it to Rustknot. Shuffling through the papers he made several indistinct noises to himself before looking up at the teenager. "It seems that he left you a majority of his estate, including the title of Head of House Black. Also, since he was your intended legal guardian according to the will of your parents, he emancipated you upon his death if it occurred before your seventeenth birthday. This in turn gives you access to the Potter family vault as well as the Black family vault. The numbers aren't important right now, one wizard couldn't possibly spend the money in a lifetime the way a good portion of it is invested." Reaching below the counter the goblin pulled out a hefty sack of galleons and pushed it across the desk, "This should help you replace some of your missing items Lord Potter-Black, and I'll withdraw the amount from your vault for you. Since control of your vaults has come out of trust, a full inventory must be done before you have access to them. Is there anything else Gringott's can do for you today sir?"

Harry's mouth hung open and he stuttered trying to compose himself. Shaking his head he said, "Sorry Rustknot, this is a lot to comprehend at once. Could I also have some muggle currency? I have a few things that I need to get from muggle London." Nodding the goblin pushed a stack of currency across the counter towards Harry. Dropping his money into his pockets Harry thanked the goblin and asked for a balance of his accounts and an inventory of his vaults sent to him as soon as was convenient and turned to leave the bank. He barely made it out of the doors before his emotions came flooding over him, rushing from the corner of his mind where he had thrust them minutes before. He walked quickly to an unoccupied space along the front wall of Gringott's, attempting to desperately choke back tears. Catching up with him Moody put a hand on his shoulder, "All right there Harry?" The teen shook his head, lifting it to meet the grizzled man's gaze, tears amplifying his green eyes.

"Its okay lad, I'm surprised it hadn't hit you before now. What happened in there?" Harry recounted his conversation with Rustknot and when he got to the part where Sirius had left him mostly everything he burst into tears again, "I don't want his money Moody! I want him back!" Moody nodded and patted him on the back, helping him compose himself. "Well, you do know what he would want you to do with that money right?" Asked Moody slyly, a grin contorting his grim face. Harry shook his head; sniffing back the last of his tears, "Go buy things that would make Molly ab-so-lute-ly freak out." Harry let out a guffaw, much like the barking laughter Sirius was known for. Nodding to himself he thanked Moody for the cheering up and made his way to Olivanders and purchased a wand holster, which he strapped to his arm, much to the approval of both Aurors. Next he went to Madame Malkins and replaced his school and dress robes. After that he purchased a new trunk, as his was in multiple pieces and partially smashed due to his outburst. He asked the counterman at Flourish and Blotts for a full set of Hogwarts books from every year and course, setting the haul in his trunk before having Kingsley shrink it so he could drop it into his pocket.

Engaging the disillusionment charm on his wand holster, Harry pushed out the front door of the Leaky Cauldron and raised his hand to shade his eyes from the setting sun. Getting his bearings he headed east, towards King's Cross station but more importantly, toward Harrod's Department Store. Somewhere along the way his guards had transfigured their robes and were walking a step behind him, watching for shady characters as Harry trudged solemnly on. Arriving at the store he checked the directory before nodding to himself and making his way to men's wear. The girl who came to help him was in her late teens and gave him an odd look as she showed him around. Noticing the incredulous looks she was shooting him he said, "Thank you for all of this help," he read her name tag "Tiffany, my bags were stolen at the Airport and I just spent a month on the continent traveling around, I'll probably need to replace my whole wardrobe." Realizing that she was most likely up for a huge commission on such a large order, her demeanor instantly changed to one of eager helpfulness and Harry smirked to himself. Catching Kingsley's eye he winked as the girl began loading herself with different sizes of casual wear for him to try on.

Deciding to tease her further, he summoned her to the dressing room while he was in between trying on trousers and asked her for a different size. He had left the door ajar and the look on her face in the mirror as she eyed his lean muscles was priceless. The surface thoughts that she practically projected at him almost caused him to blush but he kept his composure until she left, laughing to himself when she was out of earshot. "That was not nice Potter, you shouldn't mess with the nice muggle girl." Growled Moody from his post in the hallway, though Harry was certain he heard a note of humor in it. Once Harry had two weeks of casual clothes sorted out and waiting for him behind the counter, Tiffany eagerly took a tape measure in hand and led him to the formal wear and took his measurements. Explaining that he was returning to boarding school in the fall and that he would need dress pants and shirts for his uniform, he was rewarded with quite a few shades of gray and black slacks as well as dress shirts that ran the Gryffindor color spectrum.

In the end Harry was loaded down with nine bags of assorted clothes, including the jeans and long-sleeved t-shirt he had switched for his sweats. Tiffany graciously rung him up and, on top of paying the large total for his clothes, he tipped her an extra fifty pounds, winking at her and thanking her for her time. For this he was rewarded with her phone number scribbled on the back of his receipt, which he slid into his new wallet and waved to the girl before he gathered his bags and headed out of the store. Finding a secluded alley, Mad-Eye kept a look out while Kingsley shrunk the purchases and Harry slid them into a pocket before they made their way back toward Diagon Ally. "Sometimes I feel like you have more of Sirius in you than your parents, kid." Said Moody, grinning as they walked. "He was the closest thing I had to a dad, thanks to Moldy old Voldy. I may get my dashing looks from my dad, and my inherent sense of right and wrong from mum, but Sirius had an impact on me too. You were right; he wouldn't want me cooped up and sulking, when I could be out having fun. I have a unique power now and I haven't felt any scar pain since that night you guys came to save us. I'll deal with Tom when he comes calling, but right now I need to be a teenager and I'm not going to let anything stop me."

Kingsley thumped him on the back, "That's the attitude Harry, if you don't let Voldemort affect you then he doesn't win." They made it back to the Leaky Cauldron just as the last hint of sunlight disappeared over the horizon. Inside Mr. Weasley was waiting for them; he beamed as she saw a cheery Harry wearing clothes that fit him. "Looks like you made out okay Harry, have a good shopping trip?" Harry nodded, filling Mr. Weasley in on his new title and inheritance. The red-haired man looked at him wide-eyed and said, "I'm glad you're taking this so well Harry, you know how bad it is for people like you to bottle up emotions right?" Harry nodded and said, "I had a cry earlier, but then I decided that Sirius wouldn't want me to be sad, he'd want me to go out and actually live my life. So I took myself shopping and got a pretty girl's phone number." His best mate's dad grinned widely, "Glad to hear that you're taking everything in stride and not bottling it up. Still I'd like you to talk to Elena when you get back, make sure you aren't doing something like that subconsciously." Harry nodded and Mr. Weasley offered a simple pen to Harry who took it and, with a tap of his wand, was pulled back to the Institute.


	4. Chapter 4

He stopped into Elena's office when he returned and detailed his outing. She laughed at his visit to Harrods, and after he was done she asked him to close his eyes and pull back into his mindscape. A few moments later she was knocking at the front gates and he opened them to her presence, the goblins saluting her as she passed. Meeting her at the front door to the castle Harry waved and when she was close enough she reached out and put a hand on either side of his head. With such a connection she was able to race through the layout of the castle, searching every nook and cranny for any hint of repressed emotion.

She found a bit of repressed desire, focused mainly on the girl he had met that afternoon, but some also representing fellow Hogwarts classmates. On the Quidditch pitch she found suppressed ambition, represented by a ghostly Harry barely flying higher than the goal posts. Before Harry could object she sent a surge of reassurance down that tendril in his mind, freeing the player to soar ever higher. Eventually she did find where he was hiding his guilt, a sullen, dank corner far out of reach. She coaxed this Harry to come forth and be seen, but it refused and clung to the shadows with need. Linking herself with the tendril she saw images of a tall sandy-haired boy she somehow knew as Cedric Diggory, then a cycle of images depicting the injuries his friends had endured during their foray into the Ministry. Finally, on an endless loop, she saw Sirius Black, a look of absolute astonishment on his face, falling through the veil in the heart of the Ministry. Try as she might she couldn't get the playback to stop until Harry, realizing she was stuck, pushed her out and back into her own body.

Tears streaked her face as she felt the grief of the young boy wash over her. She wiped them away deftly before collecting herself. "Harry you mustn't hold on to those feelings of guilt. The rational side of your brain knows that none of that was your fault, you couldn't have known about the port key, or that the ministry was a trap. You have great courage and you stand as a beacon of hope in these dark times. A lot is expected of you, but you mustn't let that weigh you down. Be sure in your decisions, do not falter, because whether you like it or not, the entire wizarding world is watching."

Harry scoffed, "Courageous my arse! I almost got my friends killed and I did get my godfather killed. More like bloody thick headed and reckless. Everyone expects me to be this courageous hero, but half the time I'm scared shitless that someone I love is going to die." Elena came around the desk, placing her hand on his, causing his eyes to meet hers. "Harry courage is being afraid and pushing forth anyway. There can be no courage unless you're scared." Harry stared into her gray eyes before nodding to himself and standing abruptly. "I'm going to go sort some of this out, thanks for talking with me. I'll be careful about my emotions." With that he walked to the door, but her voice stopped him, "Harry your courage is contagious, never forget that. It's not only your friends that look to you when things go bad." Harry nodded solemnly and let himself out.

* * *

><p>Sleep didn't come easily to Harry that night, but when he finally succumbed he didn't end up having any remarkable dreams. He woke the next morning rested and curious as to what his lesson with Mark would entail. Like the day before he banged on Mark's door on his way to breakfast, earning him another glare when his friend eventually showed up for breakfast ten minutes later. "So what will our classes be like?" He asked after Mark had gotten himself settled with a tray of food. Mark finished chewing his bacon and said, "I wouldn't call it class per se, more of a recitation. All the stuff you cram into your brain on Monday with Jacob we'll go over in a more practical sense on Tuesdays." Harry grinned, excited for his first 'practical' lesson. He always learned better by doing, and he was interested to learn that lock-picking trick Mark had done earlier in the week. He patiently waited for Mark to finish eating before they made their way down to Room Two which looked like a martial arts training room. "What exactly will we be doing?" asked Harry, eying the mats on the floor with trepidation.<p>

"Well, since I'm positive you'll want to learn it first, we're going to try getting translocation down. From what I've heard, it's a fair bit easier to learn than apparition, and since there is less room for error, we usually teach it to kids starting at around 13 or 14. Don't feel like a late bloomer, you didn't know you could do this before." Harry, who had been about to let shame wash over him nodded and gave Mark a determined look, "So what do I do first?" Mark went to a nearby cabinet and withdrew a silk blindfold and came back to Harry, tying it so Harry couldn't see a thing. "What you're going to do is you're going to build an image of where you want to be. The best place to start is just around the room, but how can you be sure there isn't an object in the way? That's where we psions have a step up over wizards. Did Jacob cover pinging with you?" Harry nodded, the pages of the book flashing in front of his vision, refreshing him on what Mark was asking him to do. "Okay so what I want you to do is ping me for surface thoughts about my surroundings, and using what you get I want you to build an image of the room and then I want you to concentrate on putting yourself in a different location in the room, avoiding the chairs and such I've been spreading around while I've been talking to you."

Rolling his eyes Harry sent out a mental ping, which first bounced off of, and then was absorbed by Mark's shield slightly before he sent information back to Harry. The whole thing was reminiscent of bats to Harry, but from what he was getting he could see the room exactly as it was; three chairs spread around the room and Mark making a slow circle around the perimeter of the room. Focusing on Mark's instructions he moved his position in his mental room to five feet in front of Mark, in his path. A ghost image of Harry showed in his mental image and he concentrated on moving the solid Harry to the ghost Harry. With just the right amount of pushing he pushed one onto the other and they became one. He didn't feel like he had moved; however Mark's footsteps had suddenly moved from his right side to directly in front of him. "Good going Harry! I knew you'd get it in one go. Take the blind fold off." Harry reached up and puled the silk down around his neck and looked around. He had indeed moved himself from one side of the room to the other, he grinned. "Brilliant." Mark nodded and began popping around the room, showing off. "It's really not that difficult, and since we can get live updates if there is someone to ping off of we have a severely decreased chance of splinching ourselves. I'm going to go up to the lounge, I think Simon and Coggy are up there, ping off of all three of us and come on up." With that he was gone.

Harry probed the general location of the lounge until he found the three boys and then pinged each one. One at a time they sent back data, the staggering of the input gave Harry pretty much a live feed of where everyone was. Deciding to try something new he moved himself into the chair he normally used. All three boys cheered when he arrived, Simon threw a wadded up piece of paper at him, which he deflected easily. Suddenly Harry felt a tap from Elena, "Harry, I've been monitoring your progress this morning, you've been doing a great job. I spoke to Professor Dumbledore, he suggested you try to move yourself to the gates of Hogwarts for a distance test, he headed down a few minutes ago so you can use him as a focus." Harry gave an affirmative and let Mark, Coggy, and Simon know what he was going to try.

They all gave him a thumbs up and he started building an image of the gates in his head. Suddenly he was drawn there by the very familiar presence of his Headmaster. While he had seen Dumbledore fight Tom with agility he wouldn't have suspected of someone his age, the mind of the old wizard was astounding to look at. After the initial shock he pinged the professor and began getting information back and after a few seconds he moved himself to a point just next to Dumbledore. Turning to face him the old headmaster smiled and said, "It seems this Institute Arthur has kept from me is doing you well Harry. I met with their Headmistress the other night, she is a very enlightening woman." He put a hand out for Harry to shake and he took it, "Take care my boy, don't forget we have a meeting scheduled for before the start of term." Harry nodded and thanked Dumbledore for being understanding about the whole situation before moving himself back to the institute. "That is wicked, but I need to make sure I don't just move around all the time, I have no idea how you guys still manage to use the stairs." As if on cue all three boys said ,"Willpower" at once and began to laugh.

Looking at his watch Harry realized it was time for lunch, which he announced to the rest of the group. As one they made their way down the stairs, excitedly talking about the other things Harry and Mark should focus on in their lessons. It wasn't long after they were done eating when a vaguely familiar woman came into the hall and began scanning the sparse lunch crowd. "Check out this one then." Said Simon, elbowing Coggy knowingly. "Bet she'd know a thing or two to teach us." He winked conspiratorially at Mark and Harry who were sitting across from him, facing away from the door. "I'd drop the attitude mate," began Mark, "She's got some pretty solid shields up, must be an Auror, and I'm pretty sure sexually harassing an Auror is a crime." He winked back across the table at Simon who was now studying the ends of his sandwich in great detail. "Oh shite she's coming over 'ere!" whispered Coggy before he too decided that his plate was worthy of inspection. A moment later Harry felt a hand on his shoulder, "Wotcher Harry! Ready for our lessons?" Harry grinned and leaned back into Tonks who leaned down to pull him into a hug. "How're things cuz?" asked Harry, laughing at the sputtering sounds his friends were making.

He stood and she put a hand on either shoulder, taking him in, "You look good in clothes that fit you, but what's all this about 'cuz'?" Harry grinned and said, "Allow me to reintroduce myself," he adopted a posh accent and did his best Malfoy condescending smile, "Lord Harry Potter-Black at your service." Tonks. Went. White. "Y-y-you mean that he left…" Harry pulled her into a hug and whispered into her ear, "Yeah, everything, but I plan on reinstating you and your mum and giving you your fair shares. You'll be Blacks again by the end of the week." Harry wasn't just blowing steam; even now a part of his mind was reviewing pureblood customs from the book he had 'read' the other day. When she pulled back her face was tear-streaked and she was sort of half laughing, half crying. "Thank you thank you thank you!" She punctuated each phrase with a kiss on his cheek. He began to blush deeply, "Hey, its what Sirius would've done if he wasn't, you know, a wanted murderer." He adopted a lop-sided grin that reminded her of Sirius and she burst into laughter. Meanwhile Harry's friends were all staring at the pair of them, dumbfounded. "So are they cousins?" asked Mark. "Or lovers?" asked Coggy. "Ex-lovers?" conjectured Simon. Harry, perturbed by the perverted thoughts of two-thirds of his friends sent a burst of information and memory, explaining everything. "Oooooh." Said all three at once.

"Come on Tonks, let's get to work." Muttered an exasperated Harry, dragging his Auror friend out of the cafeteria and down the hallway. Awaiting them in Room One were two men in suits, Harry thought he recognized one from the day of his incident. "Auror Tonks, Trainee Potter-Black, I am Unspeakable Reynolds," he gestured to the man next to him, "this is Unspeakable Washburn." Harry nodded to each of them in turn. "We'll be supervising your training, augmenting it occasionally so that you are taking full advantage of your abilities." Tonks eyed them for a minute before pulling Reynolds aside and whispering, "You have no idea what he is capable of do you? You're just going to try to break spell theory with him since he's a T0." Reynolds shifted uncomfortably, unused to being called out like this, "Auror Tonks, I assure you that there is a method to our madness. Rufus Scrimgeour filled us in on the importance of this trainee's survival. We're going to have him try some difficult things, but if he doesn't know his boundaries it will be easier for him to try them. We've done an extensive psychological background on him and we don't think it is a danger to trust him with this much power, he isn't going to hurt anyone and you know damn well we'd be burnt at the stake for hurting him." Tonks conceded the point and they returned to the center of the room."

"Alright Harry, what we're going to start with is a practice duel. I want you to come at me with everything you know, just try to refrain from killing me." She grinned as his face paled. "Don't worry Harry, nothing like that is going to happen." He smiled weakly and they began to duel, forcing the two Unspeakables to shield themselves in a corner, away from the foray. A few things were evident to Tonks after a few minutes of dueling and she called a cease-fire. Harry took the time to stretch and catch his breath a little. The first thing she noticed was that his spell repertoire was pitiful, mostly schoolyard pranks, his only useful offensive spell being Stupefy. She was going to have to work with him on some more advanced spells. The second thing she noticed was his abnormal accuracy. Sure he had been training in secret all of last year, but she either had to deflect or shield against each spell he cast, nothing went wide, even when she dodged out of the way. She reached into her bag and pulled out an Auror grade spellbook and tossed it to Harry. "Read that for a bit while I talk to these two knuckleheads." Harry nodded and opened the book randomly, holding it at an odd angle. She shook her head and joined the two Unspeakables in the corner.

"Do all psions have that deadly accuracy thing? I couldn't get away from his spells." Washburn shook his head, "No, but that gives me an idea for an experiment, if you don't mind." She shook her head "Explain it to me." He conjured a small ball of light in his hand. "Most spells we can't control the trajectory of once they leave our wands. From what you just experienced we can conjecture that Harry is subconsciously using his psionic ability to tweak his spells so that they always hit home. He might think that he is just willing it to hit, but that's the thing about psions, when they will something to move, it moves." She nodded, "But from what you're saying this isn't normal." Washburn shook his head, "No, most psions can only move solid objects like this, not complex spell woven energy. This is the first we've heard of anyone doing it." Tonks pinched her eyes, Arithmancy wasn't her strong suit "So what do you want me to do?" Reynolds took out his wand, "I want you to distract Harry, then I'm going to fire a stinging hex at him and I want to see what happens when his instincts take over." Tonks raised her eyebrow at him, "Stinging hex only, right?" Them an grinned and held out his pinky, "Pinky promise." She stuck her tongue out at him and grabbed his pinky with her own before turning back to Harry.

As she approached he held out her book to her, "Good read, but if you misfire a bone-breaking hex and hit someone in the head, wouldn't that be lethal?" She eyed him strangely as she turned his attention away from the corner, "Did you just read this whole book?" Harry nodded, and then slapped his forehead with his palm, "Oh you must not know, they show us how to 'absorb' books, for lack of a better term. I haven't found my limit yet so I thought this book would be as good as any." She was still staring at him slack-jawed when it happened, she saw a flash of light behind him and he was suddenly facing the opposite direction, holding his hands out in front of him. Coming around to see what happened she saw the dull red energy of a stinging hex hovering inches from Harry's hands, "I cannot believe that worked…" started Tonks, staring at the ball of energy in Harry's hands. Now that he had control of it he was tossing it from hand to hand, then he split it and began juggling it. "Stop showing off, do you know how you're doing that?" Harry put the spell back together and then launched it at the wall where it left a faint scorch mark. "Yeah, once I stopped it I realized what I was doing, I formed a small shield between myself and the spell, then for convenience sake I formed it into a ball. Splitting it was just reforming the shield and then I just moved the shield around and then spell went with it."

The Unspeakables nodded to themselves and took some notes, "Harry do you mind if we try some experiments with you sometimes when we're here for your training? We could learn a lot from someone with your abilities." Harry shrugged, "Anything to help, just as long as my name is kept out of any official documents, I don't want my abilities to be public knowledge, the less Tom knows the better." Then men looked to each other and then back at Harry, "You do know we're called Unspeakables right?" Harry grinned and then turned to Tonks, "Okay want to start again? See what I can do with these new spells?" He winked and she shifted nervously, "Just don't send me to the infirmary okay Harry?"

They stood at dueling range and saluted before they began firing spells at one another, lighting up the room in a rainbow of sparks. Harry had his accuracy but Tonks had unique spell combinations that took him by surprise. After ten minutes they had to stop as Harry gasped for breath and Tonks grabbed a bottle of water from a side table. Throwing a second one at Harry she said, "Good, but you need to work on your combinations and sometimes you might need to intentionally miss to lead a target where you want them, so you'll need to work on that as well. Finally your stamina is shite, so I'm going to talk to your Headmistress to see if there is a physical training course we could opt you into. I'll work on training your magical core, and they can work on training your physical stamina so you can outlast that snake, and anyone you have to fight through to get to him." Harry nodded and sat against the wall, draining his bottle.

"I think that is enough for today Harry, if you have time practice 'missing' spells and work on manipulating spells the way you did with that Stinging Hex. Also find a book on wandless spellcasting and see if you can do anything with that." Harry climbed to his feet and draped his sweaty form over Tonks, "Yes Professor Tonks. We'll go to the Ministry and then Gringotts on Friday afternoon, bring your mum." Tonks beamed up at him, and then realizing she was looking up at him she stood back and eyed him suspiciously, "Harry have you grown four inches in a few weeks?"

Looking down at himself he shrugged, "I guess so, why you like them tall dark and handsome?" He waggled his eyebrows at her. She swatted his arm, "Yeah Harry, but I also like them older, sorry mate." She winked and he blushed. "Oh don't do that Harry you're a very attractive guy, I'm just six years older than you, not that age bothers me but Molly would kill me for 'corrupting the youth' or something." Harry grinned and pulled her into a hug, "Thanks for that Tonks, the closest anyone's come to telling me I'm attractive was fan girls telling me that I'm 'absolutely dreamy'." She guffawed and broke away from Harry, heading to the front of the institute to the apparition point. The Unspeakables came past Harry heading towards their offices, clapping him on the shoulder as they passed.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning Harry was woken up when his bed was lifted from one side and he was unceremoniously dumped on the floor. Before his brain engaged itself he had summoned his wand to his hand and was pointing it at his attacker. A spell was on his lips, but he recognized Simon and Coggy before he finished casting. "What the hell guys? What time is it?" he asked, glancing at the near darkness outside his window. "6:30" said Simon, cheekily. Harry groaned and fell backwards, "Why the hell did you wake me up? Is this Mark's way of getting back at me for waking him up at 8 every morning?" Coggy laughed and offered Harry his hand and helped him up, "Nope, Headmistress said you're ours every Wednesday and each morning before breakfast. Apparently Tonks wants you in better shape than you're in, also we're going to give you some non-magical combat training on Wednesdays." Harry sighed and pushed them out of his room so he could change. Once he was in exercise clothes they made their way down to the gym.

"Alright Potter, I know you're going to hate this but the best way to build endurance is running, so we're going to do laps of the gym, six is a mile, I want you to do two miles." Harry nodded and set off, determined to better himself. When he was on the far side of the gym Coggy turned to Simon, "He's really determined, he hasn't complained once." Simon nodded, "Yeah, but you remember our briefing, he's got a lot of people after him and he has got to be at the top of his game if he is going to survive. Also he is getting over his godfather's death, he is driving himself to be able to protect those that he holds dear." Coggy nodded and waited while Harry finished his laps. When he was 'standing' next to them gasping for breath Coggy handed him a bottle of water and said, "Small sips." Harry nodded and followed instructions. "Simon is going to have you start on weights while I go and collect some weapons for you to learn on." Harry nodded and followed Simon to the weight room.

Thirty minutes later a groaning Harry followed a smiling Simon back to the open area in the gym where Coggy had set up a table with many different muggle weapons. "Alright there Harry?" asked Coggy, grinning. Harry flashed a rude hand gesture before finally recomposing himself and looking along the table. There was an assortment of muggle firearms as well as throwing knives and a variety of combat knives. "While there may be a wide range of spells you could cast, or manipulations you could do psychically, there are only so many different types of weapons used today by non-wizards. The basics groups are," he pointed down the line as he spoke, "Assault rifles, sub-machine guns or SMG's, handguns, and knives. Now we don't expect you to walk around Hogwarts with an AK-47 and police the hallways, but having a sidearm isn't out of the question." Harry ran his hands along the metal, "You're going to show me how to shoot someone?" The two older teens nodded, then Simon said, "From what we gather you're going to need to develop your killer instinct but quick, so we'll start you on the handgun and work with you on it most of the time, but you will get crash courses in the rest in case you come across a situation where you deem the use of a bigger weapon necessary. Honestly you'll probably get by just fine with your magic and telepathy but sometimes there is nothing like the feel of a gun in your hand to help you with your confidence."

Harry let out a resigned sigh and let the boys show him how to use the weapons. They took their lunch in the shooting range, and by the end of the day Harry was versed in the usage and cleaning of all the weapons, and was given permission by his instructors to come to the range whenever he wanted to practice his aiming, despite the fact that he seemed to be correcting his bullet's trajectory like he did with his spells. Harry was torn about learning to use the weapons, they were all lethal weapons and he wasn't sure if he was ready for the responsibility of using a weapon that only caused maiming and death. With his wand he was able to choose to deal non-lethal damage, he could knock people out, he could disable them without permanently giving them a limp or making them living-impaired. He was still thinking about this when he returned to his room after dinner, so he decided that he would write a few letters.

He wrote to not only Hermione and the Weasleys, but to Neville and Luna as well. He had been worried about how they were all doing after the fight at the Ministry, but after his initial contact with Hermione and Ron he felt a lot better about the whole situation. They had talked him out of feeling responsible for their injuries, and they were planning to get everyone together for his and Neville's birthday. Now he told them that he was keeping up with his training, suggesting to Neville to hire some tutors of his own so that he could catch up now that he had his own wand.

He yawned as he put the letters in his 'out' box, then stretched as he stood. He padded his way slowly to dinner, not talking very much to his friends as he was doing his best just to stay conscious. Simon and Coggy had run him ragged and his trigger finger was sore. He waved goodbye to the three teens and half stumbled, half walked back to his room where he barely made it under his covers before he passed out.

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><p>Thursday brought another recitation with Mark after a morning of exercise with Simon. Mark decided that Harry needed to learn to write using his psionics so he set Harry to the task of transcribing one of the books he had absorbed. By lunch time he was able to write in a straight line, by dinner his scrawl was neat and tight, similar to his own handwriting, but with a more fluid feel. While he wasn't learning to fight from the things Mark was showing him, he appreciated the boys interest in teaching Harry the things that he found most interesting about being a psion. Being a less physically exhausting day he made it to the common room after dinner for a few rounds of Mario Kart before he bid his friends good night and made his way to bed.<p>

Friday he made his way to room five after breakfast to find Elena waiting for him. "What are we going to be working on Professor Smith?" He took the seat she gestured to and smiled warmly at her.

"Please Harry, Elena is fine. We're going to be working on your Occlumency each Friday. While your shields are good for keeping out the many non-magical folk around us, we need to work on your ability to repel intruders. Tell me what do you know about resisting a legillemency attack?" She saw Harry's face darken for a moment before his shining green eyes were back and he forced himself to have a neutral expression.

"Professor Snape would cast the spell on me while 'teaching' Occlumency. He would sift through my most personal memories and I would do whatever I could to think about anything else. I felt powerless as he made me relive my most embarrassing moments." Harry was looking at his feet, feeling defeated as he was reminded of the memory. Shaking his head clear of the thoughts he looked up and met the eyes that watched him.

"I'm going to show you ways of controlling which memories are shown, how to build traps in your mind, how to defend your most closely guarded secret from any intrusion. Are you ready? I want you to focus on me while at the same time keeping track of your shields." Harry nodded and sat up a little straighter. It was an odd feeling, but eventually he was able to keep his attention in the real world while having constant updates from the shields that guarded his mind. Giving Elena a slight nod he caught the causal flick of her wand and suddenly felt a pressure at the back of his shields, before he could stop her, Elena was inside, bringing up the memory of he and Mark entering the school store.

"Now what I want you to do is to find a less incriminating memory and sort of slide it into place in front of this one, do what you can do lead the one into the other so that I can't tell what actually happened." Harry focused and as he and Mark opened the door in his memory he slid in the memory of he and Mark entering room five to start their recitation on Thursday. It wasn't as flawless as he would have liked, as the lighting changed dramatically and it was a bit choppy, but for a first try he was rather proud of himself. "Good, we're going to try this again, Dumbledore told me about your proclivity for sneaking out of your dorm at night, lets try something along those lines."

Again, he focused on the real world and he must have missed the swish of her wand because he was unprepared for her assault. She brought up the memory from first year where he snuck out of Gryffindor tower to visit the Mirror of Erised. Smirking to himself he flawlessly substituted a memory from the next year where he was sneaking to the library under his cloak to avoid people accusing him of being the Heir of Slytherin. As the memory got to the point where he was entering the library he finally located her presence and gently pushed her out beyond his shields.

"Good, its almost lunch time and I think we've done enough for today. I don't want to stress your shields any more today or you might have some problems tonight. Relax this afternoon and weekend, you're going to have to start all of this over on Monday." Harry smiled and shook her hand before bounding out of the room. Learning Occlumency like this was much easier than learning with Snape, without the snide comments and pressure along with proper instruction he was making more progress in one day than he had the entire year with Snape. He found Mark, Coggy, and Simon at their usual table in the cafeteria and they all stayed into the early afternoon talking and laughing.

Mark and Harry had a lot of fun talking Quiddich while Simon and Coggy looked at them like they were crazy. Harry cast a rather complicated illusion that showed Harry's first Quiddich match play out in the space of their lunch table. After watching the game to completion, cheering at the right moments and gasping when Harry dove for the snitch. He cancelled the illusion and glanced toward the door where he had seen some movement during the end of the replay. He was surprised to see Dumbledore leaning against the wall near the door, clapping his hands silently.

Excusing himself from his friends he made his way over to the door and put his hand out, "Afternoon professor, what brings you here?" Professor Dumbledore gestured to the hallway and preceded Harry out, walking slowly with his hands clasped behind him.

"Elena tapped me when she happened across your little display back there. Did you know what spell you were casting or did you just go with it without thinking too much?" Harry looked sheepish for a moment before he realized that his mentor was truly curious and he wasn't in trouble. Harry's brow furrowed as he thought about the events leading up to his casting of the illusion.

"Sir I just wanted to show the guys Quiddich. I didn't think much about what I was doing but I knew how viewing a pensieve feels and I did my best to recreate the magic involved and then used my Occlumency to fuel the illusion. Why do you ask?" Dumbledore nodded to himself as if confirming a suspicion.

"Harry I am a firm believer that with a proper connection to magic and an understanding of how it works on, not the highest level, but the most basic, can a wizard do anything he wants with magic. For example, what is a banishing charm but a levitation charm with direction and velocity?" Harry nodded to himself, breaking down many of the charms and spells he knew into their basic components. "I want you to consider taking some arithmancy classes with me when we both have time. I think that you have a lot of potential to bend magic to your will and by creating your own spells you'll have a step up in any battle you get into."

They had reached the end of the hallways and Harry was thinking to himself, looking out a window that overlooked a garden. "The less I think about what I'm doing, the better my spellcasting becomes. I've never really been one to follow the rules, so why should I start now? I'll keep this in mind while I'm learning spells from Tonks. I will try to feel how my magic reacts to the spells I'm casting and see if I can't break them down on my own." Dumbledore smiled down at him, before gripping his shoulder.

"Do that Harry, and do let me know what you come up with. Mrs. Weasley has shown interest in hosting a birthday party for you and Mr. Longbottom. If that is okay with you…" he trailed off, chuckling with mirth as Harry nodded eagerly.

"Ron mentioned that in his last letter, I was hoping to ask you about that but it completely escaped me when we started talking about spells. Can we invite Luna as well? She lives nearby the Weasleys and I'd like to see her before school starts." Dumbledore nodded before turning and walking with Harry back towards the commissary. They shook hands as they parted and Harry headed back to meet with his friends.

As soon as Harry was out of sight from Dumbledore he felt his headmaster's familiar presence outside of his shields. Letting him in he heard the old man's voice fill his head, "If you're ever in need just tap me and I'll get back to you in an instant. This is a much better way of communicating, I'm sad that more wizards can't use it." Harry sent back his agreement and joined his friends at the table, where he was bombarded by requests for another match replay. Laughing he drew his wand and repeated his earlier wand movements and muttered a few words and the championship game from his third year where they trounced Slytherin.

It was mid-afternoon when Tonks showed up with her mother, introducing her to Harry and pulling him away from his stories. "I've managed to get a portkey to Diagon Ally and then from there to the Ministry. Less chance of someone seeing you out and about that way Harry." Harry groaned, he hated traveling by portkey, it always left him stumbling and queasy.

"I, dear cousin, have a much better plan. If you ladies will escort me to the entrance?" He held a crooked elbow to each Tonks and strode confidently to the arrival and departure point set up in a spacious room to the side of the front door to the institute. Without warning he translocated the three of them to Diagon Ally, continuing his stride from the institute almost seamlessly up the steps of Gringotts Bank.

Once inside he requested the Black family accounts manager as well as their on site solicitor and the three were escorted into an office off of a long hallway that lead from the teller area. Once inside Harry greeted the grim looking goblin in respectful gobbldygook before taking a seat facing him. "What can Gringotts do today for you Lord Potter-Black?" asked the goblin, flashing a grin full of sharp teeth.

Not one to be intimidated, Harry forged ahead, speaking of his plans to reinstate Andromeda Tonks nee Black and thus Nymphadora Tonks into the Black family. As Patriarch of the Black family he had the ability to override any previous declarations made by deceased family Matriarchs and Patriarchs, however he wanted to be sure to be official about it because he wanted no problem for his kin in future. "This is why I come to Gringotts today, I believe there is paperwork that needs signing and I wish to establish a trust vault for Andromeda, and a dowry for young Nymphadora." He winked at Tonks who stopped mid swing when she realized what he was proposing.

The goblin nodded slightly and snapped his fingers, causing a pile of parchment to appear before Harry on his desk. "These all need to be signed, the ones marked with a blue axe are for Andromeda, the one with a red axe for Nymphadora. You are to sign all of them, in blood if you please, and we shall all be out of here by dinner time." Harry sat forward and, gripping an unmodified blood quill (this one didn't cause pain and used very little of his life-source) began signing documents. Half an hour later everything was signed and sealed with both the Gringotts seal and the Black family seal. "I will report this to your Ministry and make copies available to its employees should there be any issues. The vaults will be set up by end of business today," he handed two keys to Andromeda, "Vault 1987 is yours, vault 1988 is the dowry vault." She nodded and tucked them safely away. "If there is nothing else Lord Potter-Black, I must get back to making you and I lots of gold." He flashed his sharp grin again and Harry laughed, shook his hand, and left with his newly reinstated family members trailing behind him.

As they were walking across the lobby Andromeda stopped him and pulled him into a hug, "Harry you didn't need to set up the trust vault, Ted and I are more than able to care for ourselves. Thanks again for giving me my family back, even if its just the three of us." Harry noted her refusal to speak of her sisters. Not wanting to press the matter he took each woman by the arm and strode out of the bank.

Striding through space he returned them all to the institute, speaking to Andromeda as they went, "Andy…can I call you Andy?" she nodded and he continued, "Andy if you have no use for the money then hang onto it until you do. Who knows maybe this troublemaker will pop out a kid and you can transfer it to them." Tonks did slap him this time and he winced, rubbing his arm where she made contact, "Sheesh woman, you're an auror! I'll have you for police brutality I will." This caused both women to burst into giggles before each took a cheek and pressed a kiss to it. Leaving him blushing and blustering the two women turned on the spot and apparated out of the institute.

After a minute he regained his composure and shook his head, grinning to himself. He made his way down the hall and into the cafeteria where the dinner hour was half gone. Winking at Elena he sent his tray down the line and filled it with food before summoning it to himself and joining her at a small table in the corner. "Take care of all your family business then Harry?" asked the master occlumens. Harry nodded, his mouth full of mashed potatoes. "Good, the boys are upstairs playing on that contraption that Simon's mother sent with him. They asked that I send you up so that they could 'Have a proper tournament' or something." She stood and took her empty tray with her, "Have a good evening Harry, and do try to relax this weekend, it wouldn't do to have you collapse from overwork during your first week."

Harry gave her a closed mouth grin, his mouth full of sausage this time, and waved as she made her way out of the room. When he was finished eating he bounded up the two flights of stairs to the common room and threw himself into his favorite chair in front of the TV. "Took you long enough mate," said Coggy, throwing him a controller, "Okay here are the rules…" he went into an explanation of how they were going to run their little tournament and soon they were all cheering and yelling profanities at one another.

Eventually they were all finding it hard to stay on the road so they called it a night, each heading to their own rooms, Simon and Mark still yelling profanities at each other. In his room, Harry found a few letters in his inbox and took them to bed with him. He got halfway through his letter from Ron about his birthday before sleep overtook him. His dreams that night were filled with the joy and freedom of flying. Anyone looking in on him in his sleep would see a now common smile gracing his face. In her office Elena also smiled, happy that her newest protégé was making such amazing progress.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Slight delay on this chapter. Graduate school caught up with me this week and I had a lot to get done and I didn't have time to proofread the chapter before tonight. Thanks for reading and please review, it keeps me inspired. -PP

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><p>Harry spent his weekend absorbing his replacement schoolbooks and organizing the library in his mind. He broke up the monotony by hanging out with his friends and going to the shooting range. By the end of the weekend he had taken to carrying his Walther PPK in a holster in the small of his back. Mark insisted that it was 'Very James Bond.' After handling the gun in the range for hours at a time he felt more comfortable handling it than not. He knew that he wasn't going to hit anything he wasn't aiming for, and he had modified the safety on his gun to not only react to his magic, but his intent. All in all it made him feel better about carrying a loaded firearm around with him.<p>

His second week at the institute passed much like his first. His training went well, with very few bumps along the way. Taking his talk with Dumbledore to heart he 'read' a lot of books pertaining to spell theory and magic artifacts. He learned a lot about enchanting muggle objects and creating magical foci.

The weeks passed and eventually Harry's training took on more of an independent study feel than lessons being learned. Before he knew it he was awoken one morning when the three other teens at the institute jumped onto his bed. "Happy birthday Harry!" yelled Mark in his ear. With a wave of his hand he removed the intruders from his bed, piling them in a heap by his desk. "You would think that you guys would eventually learn some manners but apparently that isn't going to happen anytime soon."

Harry climbed out of bed, pausing to retrieve the note attached to Hedwig, before stretching and pulling his desk chair out to sit on it. He read the note before turning to the pile of humanity next to him, releasing is hold on their bodies they fell apart, groaning loudly. "Seems we're all invited to the Weasley's for my birthday, guess Arthur talked to Mrs. Weasley about bringing you hooligans along."

As one they rolled their eyes and clambered to their feet. "When it is time to go, let us know then trans ahead. We'll tap you for directions and meet you there." Harry nodded and started picking through his now quite healthy wardrobe. It had only been a few weeks since he had been training with Simon and Coggy but the clothes he bought after Sirius' will reading were getting a little tight from all the weight training they were making him do. He slid on a pair of jeans before pulling one of his favorite t-shirts over his head, it was blue and had 'Relax, I'm Hilarious' across the front. He was tying his boots when Mr. Weasley popped his head in his room.

"I'm assuming from you being so presentable before noon on a Saturday that you got Molly's message?" Harry grinned and pulled the knot tight before standing up. He tousled his hair a bit before winking at Mr. Weasley and ushering him toward the door.

"Yeah, thanks for having her invite the guys as well, I'm not sure how I'm going to get used to not having them around when I go back to Hogwarts." The two of them made their way down to the entrance hall where the wards allowed for translocation. Gripping the Weasley Patriarch's arm tightly he moved them through space mid-stride, so that their stroll down the hallway seamlessly morphed into a walk up the pathway toward the Burrow.

Equally smooth, Mark, Coggy, and Simon appeared behind them, talking excitedly about the architecture of the Burrow, insisting that without copious amounts of magic the building wouldn't be able to stand. Mr. Weasley was partway through an explanation of the magic involved when the front door opened and Hermione emerged. "Welcome home Mr. Weasley and…is that Harry?!" She raced toward him, attempting to pull him into one of her infamous hugs but his muscles wouldn't budge. "Harry what have you been doing? You're built like a rock!" He grinned down at her, returning the hug with gusto.

"Little Harry over there was a bit scrawny when you lot turned him over to us that we thought we'd do a bit of remodeling. You know, thin some stuff out here and here, do a little expanding here and there." Simon lectured, talking as if he was remodeling a home rather than a human being. Hermione was looking between the three psions curiously. "Oh, right, I'm Simon, the midget is Mark, and the ginger is Coggy, no offense Mr. W." Arthur waved it off and made his way inside, he hadn't been home since Tuesday.

It was at this point that Ron and Ginny came around from the garden and greeted Harry excitedly. "Hey mate! Welcome back, we've just been de-gnoming the garden so it'll be presentable for our guests." Harry pulled his two favorite Weasleys into huge hugs before introducing his friends from the institute, leaving out the common crack about Coggy's hair as he would have offended many more people than the joke originally called for.

Once the introductions were made a switch must have gone off in Hermione's head because she suddenly got a predatory look on her face. "So Mr. Potter, what else have you been training besides your body?" Ginny took a second to squeeze his arm appreciatively before nodding in agreement.

"Yeah Harry what have you been learning?" Harry looked to Mark for support but all he got was a shrug in return. Bloody useless he was, though Harry supposed Mark really didn't have any sort of family to inform about his abilities since his aunt ran the place.

Thinking of a way to stall he held up a finger and said, "There is one thing that I have to do before we go down this road." He gently pushed past Hermione, sniffing the air as he went. Making his way into the kitchen of the Burrow he snatched a biscuit from a tray cooling on the counter before obtaining a jam jar from the pantry and, with deliberate attention to detail, made himself a jam sandwich. He bit into it and nearly moaned as his taste buds were assaulted by Mrs. Weasley's cooking. "Oooh yeah, that is what I've been looking for all this time, would you believe me that we don't have the makings for a simple jam sandwich at the Institute? Not that they hold a candle to your mum's cooking Ron."

From behind him he heard someone clear their throat before speaking, "I was going to yell something about spoiling appetites but with such rave reviews I can hardly blame you over myself Harry dear." Mrs. Weasley came up behind him and gripped him from behind in a hug to rival Hermione's.

"Oi there proxy mum, you'll squeeze the jam back out of me." He could feel her beaming at his nickname for her and knew he had escaped her wrath pertaining to his appetite. Turning back to his classmates he said, "I'd really rather wait until Nev is here to explain all of this." To himself he added, 'If I'm going to scare all my friends off I may as well do it all at once.'

His friends shrugged and they adjourned to the garden where they could enjoy the summer weather. An hour later all the guests had arrived, Reamus pulling him into a huge hug and making sure that he was okay with the Sirius situation. Due to safety concerns the only Hogwarts students in attendance were Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and himself. Luna had been invited but she was with her father in Norway hunting Snorkaks so she wasn't able to make the party. After they had a huge meal in the early afternoon, and before Mrs. Weasley could bring the cake out and insist on presents, Harry guided his friends into the living room to have a chat he was not looking forward to. Glancing to the side as he followed them into the house he saw Dumbledore give him a reassuring nod before the doorframe blocked him from view.

After settling themselves comfortably in the living room, Harry's friends all looked up to him, as he was pacing back and forth in front of them. "As you guys know I have been doing some individualized training for the past few weeks. As Hermione and Ginny have pointed out it has included physical endurance training." He winked at them and they blushed, caught in thinking that their friend looked fit. "The main part of my training, however, has been in Psionics…or mind magic." He watched as surprise spread across three faces and interest spread across Hermione's.

"Is there much more to mind magic than Occlumency/Legillimency and memory/confundus charms?" she asked, eyeing him curiously. At the word Legillimency Ron's face went a bit pale, which didn't escape Hermione's notice. "Oh come off it Ron, Harry isn't going to invade our minds or anything, are you Harry?" Harry shook his head rapidly.

"Of course not, but when I woke up after my incident on the way home from King's Cross I was doing passive scanning, I was hearing voices from all sorts of people around me. They were inane things, surface thoughts taken completely out of context that wouldn't mean anything to anybody. Mark's aunt," he gestured to the doorway into the kitchen where the three psions stood, knowing that Harry had sensed them, "Helped me build my occlumency shields. Now I can keep everyone out, I haven't learned, or intend to learn, how to solo anyone's thoughts out from the maelstrom that I would get assaulted with if I dropped my shields."

He turned back to Hermione, "To answer your question the power of psionics is nearly limitless, much like magic. I can do anything from tying my shoes to killing someone with my mind, in a multitude of ways. I can communicate telepathically with any other psion without it being intercepted; I can do something similar to apparating without the associated squeezing feeling. Simon and Coggy are teaching me how to defend myself the non-magical way and I'm learning a lot from them as well. I can give my kicks and punches additional oomph by accelerating them with my psionics, I rarely miss a shot, both with my wand and my sidearm. I'm learning a lot of things that will help me survive in the future, and anything that you are capable of learning I will teach you when we get back to school."

Hermione seemed shocked that he was carrying a gun, but with the constant threat on his life she couldn't see how it would do more harm than good. Ron looked apprehensive but seemed to accept Harry's adamant statement about not wanting to be able to read any one person. "Do mum and dad know about all of this?" he asked, worrying about how they would react to Harry's newfound power and lethality.

"Actually, your dad is the liaison between the Institute and the Ministry. He is closer to an Unspeakable than anything else because even the Minister doesn't know about the program. You should ask him to explain how the Institute ties in to his cover in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office, you'll learn a lot about what I am and it's an interesting tale." Ron and Ginny looked shocked, and Harry knew that they would be interviewing their father later in the evening. "If you'd like I can check your aptitude level to see what kinds of things I'll be able to show you…" He trailed off, looking at his friends faces hopefully.

Strangely enough Neville was the first one to speak, "Lets check me first Harry, maybe I'll have an aptitude in this as well as Herbology." Harry grinned at his now confident friend and summoned the hand scanner from Mark's offering hand. Aiming it at Neville he flicked the switch and grinned when the taller boy flinched slightly.

"No need to worry Nev, doesn't hurt a bit, just does a quick measure of a slightly different kind of power." He glanced down at the screen and saw a bright number 3 glowing up at him. Flashing Neville a lop-sided grin he said, "Congrats Nev, you're of Auror level aptitude, if you were any lower they wouldn't consider you as an applicant. All Aurors need to be able to employ Occlumency and if their aptitude is any lower than T3 they can't get more than a desk job." Neville pumped a fist in excitement and Harry dragged the scanner across the rest of his friends, "Same deal guys, I'll be able to first help you with your Occlumency and then maybe a few other fun things."

His friends all beamed at him, excited to be learning how to defend themselves from the inevitable danger. Harry then went on to entertain his friends with little tricks that he had learned from Mark until Mrs. Weasley called them back outside. Ron and Neville took him by the shoulders and pushed him into a seat at the end of a picnic table that was laden with presents. Sighing he summoned the package from the top of the pile and began tearing into it. "That one is from me." Stated Coggy, simply. Curious as to what the psion had gotten him he peered into the box and found a leather handgun holster, similar to the one resting in the small of his back. "Mark took us to Diagon Ally and I had it enchanted by Olivander. Your gun is summon-proof while in the holster and it is charmed to keep any weapon inside of it clean. It will also resize itself to any size handgun you put in it."

Harry ignored the look on Mrs. Weasley's face as he grinned at Coggy. He immediately switched it for his normal holster and had Tonks try to summon it out. When she failed Harry sat back down and grinned again as a small cushioning charm kept the sharp metal from poking him in the back. Moving on to the next present Simon spoke up, "That one is from me." Harry ripped the paper, throwing it at Ginny, before sliding the lid off of the box. Inside was a folding knife, thicker than a normal combat knife, and it looked formidable. "It's a Zero Tolerance G10, its spelled to stay sharp and is resistant to curses, I honestly couldn't wait to give it to you, I feel naked without my knife and I have no idea how you've been living without one." Harry thanked him profusely and clipped the blade one his hip pocket, the weight giving him some reassurance.

The rest of his presents weren't nearly as scandalous, at least not according to Mrs. Weasley. Hermione, Remus, and Tonks all got him a various books on Defense, while Ron and Ginny got together to get him refills for his broom servicing kit. The twins stockpiled him with enough pranks and tricks to get all of Slytherin house, twice. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley gave him a present that brought tears to his eyes. In a long box was a golden hand for a clock that had "H. Potter" inscribed upon it. "This means so much to me, thank you. It is so wonderful to have people that care for me." The adult Weasleys drew him into a hug before Arthur took the hand and promptly went inside to attach it to their clock in the living room.

Finally Dumbledore set a rather large package on the table in front of him. Raising an eyebrow at the old man suspiciously he used his new knife to cut the twine holding the brown cardboard box shut and slowly lifted the lid. Inside was a large stone bowl etched with runes, though compared to the penseives he had seen in both Snape's and Dumbledore's office, the carvings looked new and the stone somehow more polished. "While you have your own way of sharing memories, I often find it useful to be able to physically organize my thoughts. I had this commissioned for you before you left school this summer and thought it an appropriate birthday gift. Use it in good health my b-…my friend." Harry caught the slip up at the end and smiled to himself, grateful that Dumbledore was seeing him as the man he was becoming rather than the boy he left on the Dursley's doorstep. He stood and shook the headmaster's hand and thanked him, promising him that he would use it responsibly, and not to dwell in past desires.

Dumbledore's eye twinkled at Harry's reference to his first year before he nodded his head solemnly. "I must be getting back to Hogwarts, I've still yet to find a replacement for the Defense position. Neville your present is in your pile, but requires much less explanation." With a sweep of his cloak he made his way around the house and down the path to the edge of the property, where Harry's trained ears heard the faintest pop as the headmaster disapparated.

With Harry's presents all open Harry immediately moved his gifts out of the way and sat Neville down in the seat of honor, pushing his pile of gifts toward him. Grinning excitedly Neville tore into his gifts, thanking his friends for the books on Herbology, and thanking Harry specifically for the rare plant. "I don't think Professor Sprout has one of these at school, hopefully I can get a seedling before we go back and I can add it to the school's collection." Harry nodded and patted his friend on the shoulder, glad that he felt comfortable in his element. His last present was a small box from Dumbledore, inside was a key labeled 'Greenhouse Ten'. The note attached told him that it was a specially warded greenhouse used for independent projects, and that Professor Sprout had requested that the Headmaster gift Neville with a key. The brunet boy glowed with pride and everyone cheered him for his green thumb.

Everyone stayed at the Burrow as late as they could, the four psions finally bidding the Weasley family goodbye at midnight. Hermione would stay the night before heading back to Crawley in the morning via a Portkey provided by the Headmaster. The boys said a quick goodnight to one another, while Harry got hugs from Hermione and Ginny. It surprised him how small they seemed after only a month apart, he attributed to a month of good living on his part and building his body up to where it should have been before the neglect and malnutrition from his relatives.

Hermione and Ginny watched and waved as the four boys walked down the path, their laughter easily heard all the way up the path until they reached the edge of the wards and vanished into thin air. They arrived back at the institute and their conversation carried them to the hallway of the dormitory where they separated, three of them wishing Harry a happy birthday before they all disappeared into their rooms for the night.

Harry set his pensieve on his desk before delicately extracting copies of his memories from the graveyard in fourth year and the ministry just a month ago. He told himself that he would review them in the morning when he had a clear head and an objective perspective. That out of the way he made his way over to his bedside table where he set his pile of books next to his lamp, and his knife next to his wallet and watch closer to the bed. His gun made its way under his pillow while the holster sat leaning against the lamp. He stretched as he toed off his boots and then stepped out of his jeans before crawling under the covers. He thoroughly enjoyed his birthday this year and thought, hopefully, that he should really plan something spectacular for his 17th birthday.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Check it out, I'm back on schedule. Lets see how long I can keep this up :D **

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><p>As promised he sat down at his desk the next morning in his boxers, t-shirt, and socks and let himself fall into the memory of Tom's revival. He watched it a few times, approaching it from an academic standpoint and then a tactical one, observing what happened and where he could have improved. He realized that without precognition he couldn't have saved Cedric's life, and he vowed to hunt down Pettigrew and repay the favor, both for Cedric's death and for Sirius' stay in Azkaban. Pulling himself out he called Dobby and requested a light breakfast from the fanatical elf. Dobby had a similar viewpoint as Mrs. Weasley when it came to a 'light' breakfast, which was also the same as Hermione's view on 'light' reading. Upon returning from the bathroom he found a buffet set up in one end of his room with a smorgasbord of breakfast foods.<p>

Shaking his head he tapped his three dorm mates and informed them of Dobby's boon before downing a few sausages and setting down to his pensieve again. This time he took himself into the Department of Mysteries and watched as he and his friends valiantly fought their way away from the swarm of Death Eaters. He cheered each time they took down an opponent and cursed when a spell landed on his friends. Soon he was the only one left standing with a wand, the sickening crunch of Neville's wand being snapped still echoing in his ears. He watched the memory in slow motion as his godfather dueled for his life, living for the thrill of it he unconsciously called out to him as Bellatrix's spell made contact and launched him backwards through the veil.

He watched as his ethereal self ran toward the veil, hoping to see Sirius come out the other side. Then the image was shifting rapidly as he raced after Bellatrix, the details of the walls going by too fast for him to register even subconsciously. He felt Mark, Simon, and Coggy join him in the memory as he failed cursing her, and heard them gasp in awe as Dumbledore and Riddle dueled. Finally he felt three hands on his shoulder as the four of them watched Harry's mouth beg for death before Voldemort was expelled from his body. When they withdrew from the pensive Harry had a hard look on his face.

"Don't worry mate, you're better prepared now, that won't ever happen again." Said Simon calmly, his fist flexing as he attempted to keep his own emotions under control. Watching Harry's memory allowed them to become entranced by his feelings of grief and anger.

Mark walked out of the room but returned a minute later carrying a wand. "I never really got any training to use my magic, I have a pretty good control over it so I won't do anything accidentally, but do you think you could train me how to defend myself on Thursdays? We could trade off teaching each other." Harry's green eyes flicked to Mark's baby blues before he nodded solemnly.

"Sure, it'll help me make up a lesson plan for the DA for when school starts. Do you know any spells?" He sat down at his desk and pulled a roll of parchment toward himself, inking a quill with his free hand. He began making a list of spells, while he opened his trunk with his mind, summoning his defense books and pushing them into Mark's arms. His list covered 'Required Spells' and 'Optional Spells', the former list stretching to the bottom of the parchment and starting again at the top, while the option spells only included things that required a significant amount of power such as wards and the Patronus charm. "We'll work our way through this as quickly as we can, read this book, then this one, then these two, and then this one." He pointed to each book in turn and Mark was making a face that expressed his feelings of regret in asking Harry for help with magical defense.

Simon and Coggy laughed, expressing their joy that they weren't magical and that they didn't need to deal with all of that. Harry blushed when he realized they were making fun of his lesson plan but got over it quickly, ordering Mark to practice the shield charm whenever he had free time.

Before long the boys made their way to the roof where a pool had been installed and a strict 'no psionics, no magic' rule was enforced by Elena because the roof was overlooked by two apartment buildings and an office building. The boys took great pleasure in dunking one another and playing water polo. They stayed outdoors until they were called to dinner, enjoying the sun and each other's company. Once they were fed they all headed to their rooms for less active activities, the combination of the sun and the food had worn them out. Harry took the time to write a few letters before retiring to his bed.

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><p>Hermione sighed as the portkey deposited her in her bedroom the next morning. Things had been stressful at home since she returned at the beginning of the summer and had to explain her injuries to her parents, which led to her explaining all of her adventures at school with Harry and Ron. In an attempt to appease her parents she had made an effort to make muggle friends in the time she spent at home and only studied her textbooks or did her homework once she was home for the night.<p>

After spending five years at Hogwarts she had become much less socially awkward, and living with Lavender and Pavarti had taught her how to make herself presentable with minimal effort. So it was a week after she was home that a much less bookwormy Hermione made her way to the mall via muggle bus, hoping to find a group of girls her age either in the food court or one of the many clothes stores her suburban mall had to offer.

Oddly enough it was while trying on some new jumpers that she finally found what she was looking for. The two girls she heard giggling from across the shop were both slightly taller than her, one with brown hair, curly and short, the other with straight blonde hair pulled into a ponytail. She gathered up her Gryffindor courage and approached the girls, asking them for their advice on the clothes she was planning to try on. It didn't take much more than that before the three girls were giggling, talking about boys, and sipping tea in the food court.

The weeks between Hermione meeting her new friends and Harry's birthday flew by and the night before she left for the Burrow she had been informed of a party the Friday after Harry and Neville's birthdays. She really didn't want to go, but she knew that her parents were treating her amicably because she was putting on a front of making friends in the muggle world. She met up with Cassie and Rebecca a few times during the week, who chatted incessantly about the party and the boy who was throwing it, Giles Cruncher, who was a popular boy at their school. The way they described him he sounded like a muggle Malfoy but she had already promised to attend and the girls had helped her pick out an understated but cute outfit to wear on Friday.

She left her house on Friday, promising not to be out too late, wearing khaki shorts and a white blouse with a zip up jumper to keep the night's chill away. She met the girls at a café down the block from the Cruncher's home and the three walked to the house, which they could hear as soon as they exited the shop. When they knocked on the door, loud enough to at least be felt over the music, a tall boy with brown hair and gray eyes opened the door. "Giles!" called Cassie, pulling the boy into a hug, "So lovely of you to invite us, this is Hermione, we found her at the mall a few weeks back, she's bloody clever." Giles let the two girls pass before offering his hand to Hermione.

"Giles Cruncher, at your service." She smiled at him and shook his hand before following him back into the house. There was loud music playing from the front room and a large collection of drinks and snacks threatening to bring down the dining room table. She helped herself to a can of soda and made the rounds, talking to a few people she recognized from hanging out with the girls, finally settling herself on a couch in the front room.

Before long Giles joined her and they began talking about politics and history and the direction they thought the government was heading. He was very charming, he was tall like Ron but lanky like Harry, well, like Harry was. The party raged on and before Hermione knew it, many of the guests were heading out. Giles had just brought her a new drink when she mentioned that she would be heading out soon, and that she had such a lovely time talking all evening. She wasn't much for parties and it was nice to find an intellectual to talk to.

She was setting her drink down for the second time when she felt it, something was making her feel sluggish and she could feel her magic sparking to retaliate. She looked bug-eyed at Giles and mumbled, "You! You've…given me something…" she stood shakily and stumbled through the remaining party guests and tried for the front door, which she found locked. Then she made her way up the stairs, hearing Giles' footsteps behind her. With a final burst of energy she made her way into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. She fell to the floor and thrust her hand at the door and encanted "Collo…Colloportus." The door gave a slight shimmer, nothing like what she could accomplish with her wand but she hadn't had time to draw it. She hoped it would hold the vile muggle back. She felt her mind begin to dim, her vision fading to black, before she was too far gone she screamed as loud as she could with her mind, pushing as much magic into it as she could, "Ron! Harry! Help…me…". The next thing she knew was darkness.

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><p>"Ron! Harry! Help…me…" Harry heard Hermione in his head and he shot out of bed. Her urgency must have bypassed his shields and he was pulling clothes on before he stopped to think. He traced her mind back to a home in the suburbs of London but something was sedating her. He sent a burst of information to his friends and by the time he got to the parlor they were all waiting for him, Coggy and Simon appropriately armed. "Hermione just called me for help, I don't know whats wrong and something has got her sedated. I'm going to stop and get Ron, you guys meet me after I leave the Burrow." He got three nods before he turned on his heel and translocated to the Burrow.<p>

Once he was inside the wards he did it again without thinking, moving himself into Ron's room. Unsurprisingly Ron was awake and looking worried. "You heard it too then mate?" Asked Ron, who was pacing back and forth when Harry entered his room. "I want to help her but I don't know where she is, do you think you can find her?" Harry nodded and grabbed is friend by the arm and moved them first to the edge of the wards and then, a few steps later, to a house in the suburbs. Seconds later Mark, Coggy, and Simon materialized next to them.

"Harry, have you got a plan?" queried Simon, checking the clip of his Baretta. In response Harry stormed up the front walk and up the stairs to the porch. He "knocked" by pulling the hinge pins free and ripping the door out of the frame before sweetly calling out, "Hello? Anybody home?"

A few remaining party goers stood in the hallway before him, stunned that he had removed the door from its frame. Before they could react Simon and Coggy pushed past him waving badges in their faces, "Scotland Yard, you lot get back into the front room and sit on your hands, I want to see bums to fingers boys and girls, bums to fingers." Coggy was smiling kindly as he recited this, waving the tip of his gun between the teenagers and the sitting room.

Meanwhile Mark was scanning the house for any sign of Hermione, he found her in an upstairs bathroom. "Harry she's upstairs in a bathroom. Take Ron and get her, we'll do crowd control." Harry nodded and made his way upstairs, tactically clearing each room he came to until he reached the bathroom.

He tried the door, finding it locked he kept going, wanting to clear the rest of the second floor before removing Hermione from her haven. When he got to the last bedroom the door opened before him and a smarmy looking bloke wearing a smoking jacket looked startled at the gun in Harry's hand. "See here, you're in my home, you can't just come in here waving that around. Get out of my house!" The man stank of lechery and, upon rescanning Hermione's message recognized the boy. Without preamble he flipped his gun in his hand and swung it at the teen, pistol whipping him and knocking him to the floor.

"Don't you EVER come near Hermione again or next time I swear I'll use the other end of my gun." He kicked him again for good measure before calling to Ron. "Okay mate get her out of there, looks like a weak colloportus on the door, clever girl." He turned to Ron who was holding his wand loosely in his hand, looking sheepish.

"Harry mate, I've still got underage restrictions until March, I can't so much as levitate a feather without the Ministry coming down on me." It was Harry's turn to look sheepish and he mumbled a short, 'Oh' before repeating his performance with the front door, ripping the bathroom door away from the frame and depositing it on top of the moaning form of Giles.

Hermione stirred slightly at the ruckus of the door being removed and she struggled weakly to push herself away from the doorway. Her vision was blurry but she saw a tall form coming towards her and leaning down to speak to her. "Mione its okay, we're going to take you home." She saw blue eyes and red hair and gave a contented sigh as she felt herself bodily lifted by strong arms and coarse hands. He smelled of the outdoors, grass and pine and dirt. She knew that smell, she loved that smell, without much conscious thought she mumbled out, "mmm Ron." Before snuggling her face into his chest and falling back asleep.

Harry was doing his best not to notice the beet red face Ron was trying to play off, but he had heard her as clearly as Ron had. Maybe he'll realize that she cares for him as much as he does her. He smiled to himself and led the way down the stairs, stopping at the bottom to let Ron pass before he waved his hand up the stairs and replacing the door. He sent Simon and Coggy to flank Ron as he headed down the steps to the front lawn while he and Mark addressed the crowd. "Your mate Giles is a pig that gets off on drugging women. I suggest you all head home before curfew and forget what you've seen here." The last bit was a true suggestion, laced with psionic power the teens would dismiss any memories they had of doors being blown off as day-dreams and they all left the house in a single-file line to head to their respective homes. He followed Mark outside before checking that the coast was clear and repairing the front door.

Joining his friends on the sidewalk he put his arm around Ron, making sure his fingers were touching Hermione's that were flung around Ron's neck, before he stepped through the darkness and onto the front lawn of the Grangers. Simon and Coggy checked the perimeter while Mark, Ron, and Harry walked up to the front door, Hermione still with a death grip on Ron in her sleep. Harry knocked politely and waited as lights came on upstairs and soon he was standing face to face with Dr. Dan Granger. "Harry is that you? And Ron what…Hermione!" He went to reach for his daughter but Harry caught his hand and pushed it back toward him.

"Hermione has had a traumatic experience with some muggles Dr. Granger, muggles that you and your wife were forcing her to make friends with." Hermione's father blanched and Harry took the opportunity to push his way past him and into the house. The four other boys joined him in the living room and he turned back to Dr. Granger. "Where is Hermione's bedroom sir? I'll have Ron tuck her in, don't forget to get those shoes off Ron." His friend nodded and then turned his eyes from Harry to Dr. Granger who gave him directions to his daughter's room.

The group stood in silence while Ron's footsteps made their way up the stairs and into the second door on the right. There was some shuffling and a few clomps as Hermione's shoes hit the floor before they heard the click of her door closing and Ron made his way back down. All five boys looked expectantly at Dr. Granger who sunk into an armchair, "We didn't think anything like this would happen. We just wanted her to have a normal summer. She told us about all the times you three got into trouble at school and we were scared. We wouldn't have suggested she go to anything if we thought there wouldn't be proper supervision, you have to understand that Harry, Ron." The two boys exchanged glances before nodding and turning back to Dr. Granger.

"We know you couldn't have predicted this sort of thing happening, and you're really not to blame but I couldn't kill the boy responsible so some of that is coming across at you. Just trust Hermione to take care of herself, and trust us to take care of her. We wouldn't let anything happen to her, she's like a sister to me." The older man nodded, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Do you know what she was drugged with? Will she be okay?" Harry nodded, explaining that he ran a scan on her and it seemed to just be a sedative rather than a date rape drug. Probably a sleeping pill emptied into her drink at the party. Her father let out a sigh of relief. "I'll tell her what happened when she wakes, would you two mind stopping by tomorrow to visit with her? I'm sure she'll need the support."

Harry shook his head and apologized, "I've got class tomorrow most of the day but I can stop by after dinner, but I'm sure Ron would be more than happy to come over first thing and keep her company." Dr. Granger turned his gaze to Ron who was attempting to look anywhere else, while Harry was winking at him conspiratorially. Ron agreed to stop by after breakfast, and Harry took the time to make a portkey out of a pen that was laying on the coffee table. Handing it to Ron he said, "Tap that with your wand when you're ready and say, 'The Grangers' like you're using the floo. When you're ready to go home, if I'm not here, do the same thing but say, 'The Burrow'. Not sure how long it'll last but it should give you enough charges to go to and from most of this week, be here for her since I can't be." Ron nodded and took the pen, shoving it deep into his pocket so he wouldn't lose it.

"Right well, we must be off, can't be gone from the Institute too long, Aunty will get angry." Began Mark, ushering everyone out the door. "Nice to meet you Dr. G. Lovely home. Lets go boys." The three Institute residents translocated back home while Harry took Ron back to the Burrow, promising to see him at the Grangers the next day.

He got back to the Institute and nearly made it to his room before Elena stepped out of the shadows and blocked his path. "And where exactly were you tonight Mr. Potter?" Uh oh, he lost his first name privileges. He looked shamefully at his feet as he swung his right foot back to front, scuffing the ground slightly with the sole of his shoe.

"My friend Hermione was attacked, so I went after her with Ron and we found her drugged in a bathroom at a muggle's house. I might have thrown a door at him…but I put everything right before I left." He could feel her discerning gaze boring through him, though she made no attempts to invade his mind. She sighed and let down her stony exterior.

"Harry you need to let someone at least know that you're taking off. We had no idea where you had gone and we couldn't be sure you hadn't been lured out and captured. I trust you four," Harry gulped at this, he hadn't realized she had caught all of them, "to take care of yourselves and each other, but I need you to be responsible and let someone know when you go gallivanting off to save some damsel in distress. I understand that Ms. Granger is like your older sister so I'll give you some leeway this time, but if I catch you sneaking out again you're going to have to answer for it."

Harry nodded and gave her a one-armed hug as he passed, hoping to reassure her as much as himself that their friendship was still in one piece. She smiled despite herself before ruffling his already mussed hair and sending him off to bed.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Shorter chapter, but its more of a lead up to more exciting things. I just realized that nobody caught (or did and didnt mention) my Unspeakables. Shame on you! *wags finger***

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><p>The rest of Harry's summer went by in a blur. He spent some time visiting with Hermione, but he gave her and Ron space, hoping to spark what everyone but the two of them realized was there. He trained mercilessly, finding more and more unique things he could manifest with his mind and then finding interesting ways to put them to use. Simon and Coggy ran him ragged every spare moment he had, building up his body to take the punishment that was Tonks' training. The two men from the Department of Mysteries showed up occasionally, asking Harry to try different things with his incredible psionic and magical reserves. While sometimes their experiments proved fruitless, more than once Harry filed what they had him try away for future use.<p>

His magic lessons with Mark were progressing quickly. While he couldn't absorb books at the rate or quantity that Harry could, he was very adept at absorbing the information Harry outlined for him. Soon he and Mark were dueling, and then sitting down for a few minutes after each duel to show Mark what he was doing wrong. While Harry only had a few weeks to teach him, Mark was showing tremendous progress. Harry informed him that he would talk to Dumbledore about allowing Mark to join the DA lessons. Hearing this both Simon and Coggy voiced their opinion that the DA should have a muggle fighting section and offered up their services as guest lecturers. Harry rolled his eyes but accepted the offer, telling them the same thing he told Mark about discussing it with Dumbledore.

Before Harry knew it he was packing his new trunk, gathering up all of the odds and ends he had collected since the beginning of the summer and storing them in the various compartments. He went up to the owlrey and sent Hedwig ahead of him to Hogwarts. He had just finished shrinking his trunk and sliding it into his pocket when he heard a knock on the door. "You're all packed up then? Ready to head back to school?"

Harry turned to find Mark leaning against his door frame, surveying the empty room. "Yeah, got it all right here," Harry tapped the trunk in his pocket, "students will be coming back here for the school year, right?"

Mark nodded and then let out a sigh, "Yeah but you're a lot more fun than the normal guys who are here. They're usually non-magical kids like Simon and Coggy but with a lot less personality. I might come visit you on the weekends if that is cool with you." Harry shrugged, it really wasn't up to him.

"I don't see why not, tap Dumbledore before you come though, don't want to set anyone into panic mode when you set off the visitor trip ward." They both laughed and Mark held out his hand for Harry to shake. He grabbed it and pulled his newest friend into a brotherly hug, "Stay safe Mark, its crazy out there and while I know you can protect yourself better than most, I don't want to see anything happen to you."

The blond boy nodded, and then led the way down to the sitting room where Mr. Weasley was waiting for him. "I told Ron, Ginny, and Hermione that you'd meet them on the platform so we had better get going. Got everything? Send Hedwig off okay?" Harry nodded and grabbed Mr. Weasley's arm and gave a quick wave to his three summer companions before translocating the two of them to a maintenance tunnel at King's Cross. They hurried out before they were discovered and made their way to and then through the portal to Platform 9 ¾.

It didn't take Harry long to see Ron's head poking above the crowd and he made his way to his three best friends. "How are you guys doing?" He asked all three but his eyes lingered on Hermione who gave him a slight nod before pulling him into a Hermi-hug. She said something into his chest but he couldn't hear her so he pulled back slightly and said, "Try that again."

She huffed and then repeated herself, "I said thank you for coming to get me. I wasn't sure if you would hear me with your shields up but I'm glad I got through." Harry's eyes flicked to the hand she had just entwined with Ron's but said nothing. Instead he began herding the three of them onto the train.

"I'm not sure how you got through Hermione, I think I might have subconsciously left doors in there for you guys so that if anything happened I would be able to help. Since you all have the aptitude I will teach you guys how to mentally contact me or, 'tap' me. It's the first step in manifesting your powers and one of the most useful things to learn in the beginning aside from your shields." It was at this time that the train decided to jerk into motion causing Hermione to respond in kind.

"Ron! Its time for the Prefects meeting we'd better get going." Harry waved to his friends and settled back, pinching the bridge of his nose to stem the headache that was forming. Being around so many wizards, a good portion of which were untrained psions was harsh on his shields. He closed his eyes and began making necessary repairs, repurposing his shields to better handle the heavy traffic they were dealing with. If this was the kind of thing that Snape dealt with every day he could understand why he was so grumpy. On the same note he wasn't sure how Dumbledore kept so cheery.

He built up his walls until he couldn't hear any of the student's thoughts pressing against them and then, thinking of Malfoy, he made one more adjustment. Instead of simply blocking out everything, he allowed a very low level of emotion bleed through, enough that he could detect anyone with hostile intent but not enough that he would be overly distracted by the extra input to his senses.

When he opened his eyes he found that Luna had joined he and Ginny in the compartment and was absently reading a copy of the Quibbler, while Ginny had pulled out her DADA text book and was reading ahead. When his eyes fell to Luna she spoke to him without moving her eyes from the newspaper. "Feeling better Harry? Being around all of these undisciplined minds is hard isn't it?"

Harry raised one eyebrow at her before he realized what she meant. "You're like me aren't you Luna, you're receiving all sorts of signals from everyone around us, that's why you're so distracted all the time." Her crystal blue eyes met his emerald green and she nodded, smiling as she did so.

"You're quiet now Harry, its rather an enjoyable feeling to be around those that can shut themselves off. Usually it is all in a jumble but occasionally I learn something humorous." Harry laughed and shared with her his experiences the night he got to the institute in the beginning of the summer. Thinking back to how Elena helped him form his shields he gave Luna a discerning look.

"How would you like me to help you build up some shields? If you're as adept as I think you are we should be able to do it before we get to Hogsmeade." Luna was staring at him now, and not in the way she normally stared. Slowly she folded up the Quibbler and set it aside. Ginny was looking back and forth between the two of them, entirely engrossed in the interaction.

"How do I start?" asked the blonde Ravenclaw, her eyes boring into Harry's. He pushed his shields outwards, not that they occupied physical space, but it was the only way he could imagine sharing them with Luna. As if he had an upturned punch bowel over his head, he extended it and set it around Luna's mind as well. He was focused on what he was doing but Ginny noticed her best friend visibly relax as something Harry did took effect.

"Can you see my shields? See how they're constructed and keep out certain things and then allow in others? I want you to build up your own without any distraction just inside mine, but I only want you to protect your own mind." Luna heard Harry's voice in her head and she complied with his instructions, slowly erecting a picket fence around her thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Harry was about to object to such a loosely defined barrier when a burst of light blue magic erupted from the base of the fence, stretching up and forming a dome over the meadow in her mind, creating a translucent field of magic. "Good, have you got a hold of it? Do you know every inch? Can you recall every detail?"

Luna explored her mindscape, quickly memorizing every last detail that formed her defenses. When she was ready she focused on relaying a message to Harry, "I think I have everything down, what do I do now?"

Harry grimaced, this was the hard part, "I want you to drop your shields and then rebuild them as fast as you can. Do this over and over until you can do it with minimal thought. The repetition builds their strength and gives them roots in your mind." Luna dropped her shields and rebuilt them. It was slow going but eventually she had every blade of grass in place. "Okay, I'm going to drop my shields, tell me how it feels and if your shields drop for any reason focus on putting them back up immediately."

Luna opened her eyes and stared at Harry who was still sitting across from her. To his right were Ginny and Neville and to her left were Ron and Hermione. She raised a pale eyebrow at her tutor, "When are you going to drop them Harry?" The grin that spread across his face shocked her at first until she understood what it meant, "You've already dropped them? This is me on my own?" Harry nodded. Luna felt amazing, as if she was breathing properly for the first time in years. Everything that used to have a haze on it was gone; she could sense things she wasn't aware of before with her mind being overloaded.

Without thinking she launched herself across the aisle at Harry, pressing a kiss to his lips before pulling back, "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" She called ecstatically, hugging him tightly before returning to her seat.

Harry was smiling, but he was staring at the doorway, he felt a distinct flash of jealousy from the corridor as Luna kissed him. "Did anyone see someone in the hall just now?" He stood and opened the compartment door, glancing left and right down the corridor and finding nobody walking about in their car. He shrugged and sat back down.

"We were all pretty distracted by Luna kissing you like that, what was that about? What have you two been doing? You didn't notice Hermione and I coming back from the prefects meeting." Ron was eyeing his best friend curiously.

"Harry helped me build my Occlumency shields, I have been having such a hard time blocking out everyone else's thoughts for the past four years at school, it was never this bad at home with Daddy." Luna explained about what her life had been like and how she was afraid to go to anyone for help because she didn't want them thinking that she was actively trying to read their minds.

Hermione flashed a grin at Harry, "I think Harry knows exactly what that feeling feels like, he was afraid we'd have a problem with his abilities when we saw him for his birthday. Don't worry Luna, we know you're a good person and a great witch." Luna blushed but Harry still looked distracted. His face suddenly lost emotion and he clicked his fingers, summoning a book out of his backpack.

"Incoming Malfoy, deal with him how you like but I plan on ignoring him." The other five occupants of the compartment all touched the hiding places for their wands for reassurance and then relaxed, waiting for the inevitable confrontation.

Sure enough not a minute later Draco Malfoy was standing in the doorway to their compartment. "I heard Potter and Loony were having a staring contest and I was wondering how Potter was doing it without vomit-" He thought better of finishing his sentence as five wands pointed directly at his face.

Harry turned a page in his book, "It would seem, Draco, that you are at a disadvantage. Why don't you take your trolls and hurry on back to your own cabin before you get hurt." When he finished the page he was on and hadn't heard any movement he looked up to see that Malfoy was attempting to stare a hole through his head. Sighing Harry waved his hand at the three Slytherins and caused them to go flying into the corridor before he twitched a finger, slamming the compartment door shut and locking it. The hand motions were not necessary, but it gave everyone else something to attribute the actions to.

The rest of the compartment had returned to their seats but Luna was looking to each one in turn, "Thank you all for jumping to my defense like that. It is nice to have real friends, not people who pretend to know what I'm talking about just so I'll shut up…" She cast her large blue eyes to the floor but it wasn't long before Ginny and Hermione had pulled her into hugs and Ron and Neville were both patting her gently on the back. Harry sent her a mental tap of comfort before returning to his book.

The rest of the trip passed uneventfully and despite Harry's outward composure he was extremely concerned about the hint of jealousy he felt earlier in the ride. By the time the train arrived in Hogsmeade they had all donned their robes and were all happy to see Hagrid calling for the First Years. They all took time to say hello to the half-giant before the six of them squished into one carriage, Luna on Neville's lap and Ginny on Harry's. Neither he nor the youngest Weasley were affected too much by the situation, despite Ron's death glares behind Hermione's back.

Much to Ron's chagrin, the now lucid Luna started a conversation with Ginny about the selection of eligible boys in Fifth through Seventh years. Harry laughed but wasn't fooled by the nonchalant look Ron affected when Hermione joined in on the conversation.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I want to apologize in advance for my awkward song...**

**Moving along someone mentioned the gun laws in Great Britain, the laws that limited handgun ownership to the point that they are at now was enacted in 1997 and as such post date my story. **

**Also I missed our appointment for an update last week, I won't say it isn't going to happen again but I had every intention of publishing but Grad school got in the way.**

**Let's find out who the new DADA Professor will be!**

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><p>The five Gryffindor's waved and hugged Luna goodbye before occupying the end of the table closest the staff table. Harry was startled when he scanned the staff table for the new Defense teacher only to find Elena Smith staring back at him. "And to what do I owe this pleasure Elena?" He asked, tapping her gently as he explained to his friends who she was. "She taught me a lot of what I know, she's a great Occlumency teacher, she is Mark's aunt." His friends nodded and Hermione looked up at the new professor with admiration.<p>

"Albus requested that I come to teach his students Occlumency, since Legillimency is one of Tom's favorite weapons. It will also help people throw off the Impirius if it comes to that." She smiled at him and turned to answer something that Professor Flitwick has asked her. He wanted to ask her about the other aspects of the Defense course but was interrupted by Professor McGonagall entering the Great Hall carrying the Sorting Hat on a familiar stool. She set it on the stage in front of the school as the First years filed in behind her, milling together unsure of what to expect.

The time has come,  
>For all to fight,<br>From house to house,  
>To save the light.<p>

By working together,  
>It is impossible to fall,<br>For Hogwarts' might,  
>Runs through you all.<p>

Gryffindors will lead the fight,  
>And Hufflepuffs will unite the clan,<br>Slytherins will even the score,  
>And Ravenclaws will plan.<p>

Each house with virtues true,  
>Striving to be unique,<br>You will find a home,  
>In whatever you may seek.<p>

Everyone broke into applause and McGonagall unfurled her scroll and began reading names from the list. While she was leading the sorting Harry went out on a limb and tapped the Sorting Hat. After calling out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" he got a reply. "Ah Mr. Potter, I see you have finally accomplished some of the great things that Olivander and I spoke of so many years ago." Harry grinned and waited as the hat sorted another student into, "RAVENCLAW!"

"Yes, I only learned of my ability a few months ago but I have done my best to learn to access and control the incredible amount of power I have access to. Being able to communicate like this is very convenient. I have to ask, do you have a name? I can't imagine that the founders had a spell to create artificial intelligence that kept up this long." He felt more than heard the rumbling laughter that came from the hat.

After sorting his first "GRYFFINDOR!" the Sorting Hat responded. "You are quite correct Harry. I was in fact the first Head Boy of Hogwarts. When time was getting the better of me despite being many years younger than the founders, Godric and Salazar approached me with a proposition. They would transfer my essence into this hat and I would be the avatar of the Four Founders for as long as Hogwarts stood. The spell they used eventually led to the spells used to animate wizarding paintings. So while I'm not exactly the Alistair Crowley from so long ago, I am a reasonable likeness."

Harry grinned as the last student was sorted into "SLYTHERIN" and realized that it must have been Zabini's younger sibling. As Alistair was being carried away he sent one final message, "It was nice to meet you Alistair, I hope we can talk again in the future."

"You know where I live Mr. Potter. Don't be a stranger just because my roommate is the Headmaster." Harry laughed out loud at this and his friends all looked at him skeptically. He explained that he had been communicating with Alistair, which caused Hermione to perk up. 'Imagine the kind of insight he would have into the history of the Wizarding World!' Harry just grinned and shook his head.

The Opening Feast had come and was soon gone when Dumbledore stood at the podium in the front of the hall. "Welcome welcome welcome to our new students, and to our old hands, welcome back. I'm certain that this will be an exciting year here at Hogwarts, and not in the way it has been recently." There was a smattering of polite laughter before he raised his hands and silence returned. "As you should all know by now, the Forbidden Forest is just that, forbidden. Dark creatures roam those trees and it is best to keep clear. Mr. Filch has asked me to mention that the list of banned items has been expanded to include anything sold at Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes."

The entire of Gryffindor and a good portion of the rest of the students cheered and laughed at this.. Even the Slytherins couldn't deny the twins' genius and fantastic products. Dumbledore called for silence once more, "Yes we are all proud of Fred and George's success however I think we would all appreciate it if you were to show that pride somewhere besides school grounds. Finally I would like to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Smith." There was polite applause all around, anyone had to be better than Umbridge.

"Professor Smith is an expert in the mind arts and will be teaching the upperclassmen how to defend themselves against unwanted intrusions into their minds. As Legillimency is one of Voldemort's greatest weapons I would be negligent if I did not do my best to prepare you for what may be out there." There were a few gasps as Dumbledore said 'Voldemort' but quite a few of the sharper upperclassmen realized exactly what Dumbledore was saying.

Harry was the first to voice his concern however, he stood and addressed his headmaster, "Professor Dumbledore what about the other aspects of the Defense course? Dark creatures and dueling will be vital skills to have in the coming days, what are we going to do about those topics?" The twinkle in Dumbledore's eye caused Harry's stomach to plummet. "Oh you have GOT to be kidding me, sir."

Ignoring Harry's outburst Dumbledore turned back to the rest of the students. "Assistant Professor Potter will be teaching a modified Defense curriculum focused on magical dueling and defense. He is to be treated with the respect due to him as an Assistant Professor." At this he looked down his nose and through his spectacles at the Slytherins in the far right hand side of the hall. "Prefects take your First years to their dorms, the rest of you are dismissed. Mr. Potter if you could join me in my office?"

Harry told his friends that he would tell them everything later and broke off from them halfway to Gryffindor tower, making his way stoically toward the headmaster's office. The gargoyle jumped aside for him and by the time he got to the top of the spiral staircase he could hear Professor Snape yelling from the other side of the door. "It is irresponsible and completely unacceptable. That spoilt brat should not be teaching MY class Albus. You know exactly how long I've wanted that position."

Harry entered the room quietly; he gave a quick nod to Dumbledore before taking a seat between Elena and Snape. "And you know, Severus, exactly why I haven't given you the position. Tom would pressure you into weakening the students for him and force you to teach the Dark Arts to his select few. Mr. Potter on the other hand has no such constraint."

Snape whirled on the teenager in question and drew his wand, "This boy couldn't even keep out a first year I see no reason why he should be teaching the class, Legillimens!"

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><p>The next thing Severus Snape knew he was bound to a dentist's chair with some sort of muggle contraption holding his eyes open. A screen lowered in front of him and scenes began to flick past, Petunia Dursley wielding a frying pan, Harry cradling a broken arm in what seemed to be a cupboard, Harry running for his life from Dudley and his gang. Over and over these images played in front of his eyes, each time he attempted to look away the screen followed his line of sight. For the first time in a very long time, Severus Snape was afraid.<p>

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><p>Dumbledore levitated his Potions professor back into his chair while giving Harry an admonishing look, "You shouldn't have done whatever it was Harry, will he recover?"<p>

Harry rolled his eyes, "Professor, Snape just tried to pry my mind open to prove a point, I think that as an Assistant Professor, let alone a human being with rights, I should be able to defend myself by whatever means necessary. Sna-Professor Snape will be just fine, I'm just giving him a bit of an attitude adjustment, nothing physically harming at all. In fact he will be released when he himself realizes that I am not the bully who tortured him through Hogwarts, even if I bear a striking resemblance."

Dumbledore was stroking his beard thoughtfully, "How long do you expect that to take, Harry? I can't have one of my heads of house incapacitated for the start of term."

Harry simply shrugged. "Time passes quicker inside our minds, you know that. We can dream of entire lifetimes in one night, getting over a grade school grudge may seem like something that will take longer than a lifetime but I don't expect him to be out for very long. While he is a very stubborn man he is in no way stupid. Ignorant of blatant facts maybe, but not stupid."

Dumbledore let out a sigh of defeat before offering his guests Lemon Drops, which Harry for the first time ever decided to accept. "Now you'll be in charge of your classes and will be able to give or take house points and assign detention. However due to the fact that you are going to be a student while you are not in the classroom, you will also lose all professorial privileges when you step out of your classroom. Hogwarts will not register points nor detentions assigned by you if it is not your class period or office hours."

"Now these," Dumbledore took a moment to levitate a stack of parchment toward Harry, "Are Reamus and Alastor's lesson plans. You can use them as a guideline in order to create your own. Anything in red ink is required material, anything beyond that is completely up to your discretion. From the OWL and NEWT grades that your DA members have earned I am most happily assured that you will be more than up to the task."

Harry flipped through the parchment for a few minutes before bringing his eyes back up to meet Dumbledore's, "Hermione did a lot of my lesson plans for the DA, would it be okay for her to help me plan out what to teach? She's much more familiar with the ministry requirements than I'll ever care to be." Elena chuckled at this, which caused Harry to remember that she was also in the meeting. "And what about you missy? When were you planning on telling me that you were coming to teach?"

She waved him off, "I'm only teaching a few classes a week, I'll spend most of my time at home in the institute. There is no way I'm leaving Mark that unsupervised, he'd tear the place down. I tried to tell you when I explained how much of a natural leader you were, but the topic never came up. I was more worried about your mental health than I was about this situation."

Dumbledore cut in, "I also asked her to leave it as a bit of a surprise, your outburst in the Great Hall did more than I had ever hoped. This way people will not first suspect that you in any way wanted the position, which should lead some of your more…acidic relationships to not cause as many problems in class. As for asking for Ms. Granger's help with your lesson plans I wholeheartedly encourage you to use whatever resources you have to make this year of Defense the best the castle has seen in decades."

Harry jerked his thumb at the still catatonic Potions professor, "Snape seems to think that I stole the placement out from under his nose. I'm sure that my first class of Slytherins is going to be ever so pleasant. They'll probably try to hex me to the wall and then play 'Operation' with my insides."

Elena let out a rather unfeminine snort at this, which caused Dumbledore's confusion to deepen. Seeing his bewilderment she sent a burst of information his way, explaining the muggle board game and included her mental image of Harry going, "BUZZ Bloody BUZZ that was NOT my kidney you learning disabled baboon!"

Dumbledore's uncharacteristic guffaw seemed to coincide perfectly with Snape's snapping back to reality. After regaining his composure the Headmaster realized that two of his professors were having a staring contest. "Severus, are you well my boy? Harry ensured me that you wouldn't come to any harm and that you could break out of his trap yourself."

Snape nodded slowly, never breaking eye contact with Harry. "I am perfectly fine Albus, Harry took it upon himself to give me a…wake up call. Mr. Potter I will not apologize for the way that I treated you the last five years. While my initial read on you is obviously incorrect you did go out of your way to punish me for it. What I will offer you is a truce, I realize that you are far more powerful than the Dark Lord and I'd rather like to be on the winning side. While I understand that Professor Smith gave you a much better tuition in Occlumency than I did, you seem to have taken it to a whole new level that I am keenly interested in exploring."

Harry was eying the man that had made his life at Hogwarts a living hell, second only to Umbitch. "As long as the truce extends to all of your other students, you can be as mean as you want, but you have to grade fairly and assign detentions to all those who deserve it." He emphasized the last two words forcefully, lacing them with as much suggestion as he thought Snape could handle.

Though taken aback by the forcefulness of Harry's words, having to backpedal in his mind to keep their power from taking hold, he gave the teen a nod of respect. "Agreed, though I'm not sure how much this change is going to help Longbottom's grades."

Harry grinned, "Without you hovering over him like a bat he was able to get a solid O for his Potions OWL. He knows the ingredients like the back of his hand, and understands better than I ever will how they react with one another. If you'd allow him the time to work through the potion, you'd be surprised with the results."

Snape arched an eyebrow, "Indeed. If you ever need a hand in the classroom feel free to ask, I have a few ideas for the Defense class room that you might be able to test out for me."

Harry matched his newfound ally's facial expression; "I'd be glad to, as long as you explain them to me fully and tell me what you expect to happen. I can't give you pointers on running your classroom without giving you the opportunity to return the favor." They both smirked at each other before turning back to Dumbledore who was sitting back in his chair looking as pleased as can be.

"I'm glad you two have buried the hatchet, you both have such exceptional minds it seemed a waste to me for you to bicker as you always have but I was in no position to remedy the situation. Now Harry as Elena has flat out rejected to be paid for the few classes she'll be teaching, the salary for the Defense position falls to you."

Harry was already shaking his head, "No way professor, I have more money than two Malfoy fortunes put together, I have no need for the salary. Donate it to the Orphan Student fund, anonymously. Now if there is nothing else I really must be getting to Gryffindor tower before curfew."

As he turned the handle to leave Dumbledore's voice caused him to pause, "One of your privileges that does extend outside of the classroom Harry is that the curfew does not apply to professors." Harry grinned into the door before continuing his exit from the room.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Sorry for the lack of uploads. I've been out of the country and getting back into the flow of school. Hope you enjoy this chapter. As always please review.**

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><p><strong><strong> Harry was halfway back to Gryffindor tower before the idea struck him. He knew that he could translocate inside the anti-apparition wards at the Burrow, but he had no idea how it would work inside of Hogwarts' ancient wards. Concentrating briefly, he disregarded the laws of physics and slapped them around to his will. With minimal extra effort he was able to punch a hole from the second floor hallway he was in to the hallway just outside of Gryffindor tower, giving the Fat Lady quite a shock.

He grinned at her and gave her the password, sending his magic forward to widen the passage behind the portrait so that he could walk the entire way through. There were a few other sixth and seventh years still awake but he ignored them and joined his friends by the fire. "How was your meeting with the Headmaster?" began Hermione, "Professor Snape looked really mad when he followed him out of the hall."

Harry laughed at this, "Greasy git wanted the job and was pissed off that I had been chosen over him. He tried to break into my mind and in the process learned the error of his ways. He should be a bit more tolerable in class from now on."

Hermione's eyes grew wide at the implications, "Harry James Potter please tell me you did NOT attack a Professor." She was burgeoning on a full-blown rant but Ron snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her back down to the couch and onto his lap, effectively quieting her.

"Hermione all I did was defend myself against an attack from a fellow professor. All I used was some very advanced Occlumency with more than a touch of psionics. I gave him an unabridged look at my childhood and he finally seems to get that I'm not one to bask in my fame. We both agreed to help one another with our teaching techniques in a cordial manner, which reminds me." He pulled the stacks of parchment from his robes and enlarged them before handing them to Hermione, "Would you mind helping me sort out an effective lesson plan? Those are Remus and the real Moody's lesson plans from when they were here."

Hermione greedily scanned the documents before nodding to herself, "Oh its really quite self explanatory but I know how you are about scheduling things. I'll take a few minutes before breakfast tomorrow and at least get your first week done, then I'll have the rest to you by start of class next Monday." Harry grinned at Ron over her shoulder, who was happy as a clam to have the petite witch on his lap.

"Thanks 'Mione, I really appreciate it. Now if none of you mind I need to be getting to bed, I have a busier day than the rest of you tomorrow, twice as many classes but thankfully I only have to learn in three of them. 'Night." He gave the girls tight hugs and slapped Neville and Ron on the shoulder before trudging up the stairs and into his dorm room.

He got ready for bed and climbed into his four-poster, surprised at how similar it felt to the bed he had at the institute. That train of thought led him into thinking of his friends there and soon he was bringing all three into a conference chat, discussing his new title and how they were coping with life without him. This led to some jokes about his ego which he took good-naturedly before signing off and promising to keep them updated, with a private promise to Mark to keep an eye out for his Aunt.

As he gave up his fight against sleep one thing was rattling through his brain. The flash of jealousy hit him again as he relived the memory, tending to the organization of his mind before he drifted off to sleep. It was a mystery for tomorrow or the day after, he needed as much sleep as he could manage, this was already proving to be an interesting year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

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><p>Harry was up early the next morning, fully intending to keep up with the exercise plan that his friends had set up for him. He returned to the dorms by seven, nudging Ron awake before he trudged into the shower. A quick flash of a body tight shield and he was dry and toweling his hair. He dressed in jeans and his dragon hide boots. He put a tight black t-shirt on over top and slid his side arm into its holster at the small of his back. His wand found its way into the holster strapped to his right forearm before disappearing from sight. His combat knife was clipped to his hip pocket and he strapped his bright orange dive watch to his left wrist. He left his robes shrunken in a pocket because his first class of the day was Fifth year Hufflepuffs and Slytherins for DADA.<p>

Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Ginny all joined him on his trek down to the Great Hall but they got separated with Professor McGonagall pulled Harry away from the group upon entrance. "Professor Potter, since you'll be teaching first thing today Filius and I thought it would be a good idea for you to sit with us at the staff table, give you a head start as far as your authority is concerned. Slytherins first thing of the term is nothing to scoff at." Harry nodded and gently tapped his friends, letting them know of their Head of House's plan. They all smiled back at him from their seats at the Gryffindor table and he climbed the three short steps up to the stage where the staff table sat overlooking the students.

He gave brief nods to the other Professors, only eliciting a raised eyebrow from Snape. As soon as he had his plate filled with eggs, bacon, and toast he was pulled into an animated conversation with Professor Flitwick about what he planned on teaching in class. The diminutive professor nearly bounced out of his seat when Harry explained that he hoped to have sixth and seventh years able to point cast levitation charms in order to intercept unforgivables. McGonagall broke into their conversation here from her position on the other side of Harry. "And what if there is nothing for them to put into the line of fire Harry?"

He was slightly thrown by her use of his first name, but he shook it mentally before turning a smiling face to his Transfiguration professor. "Well, Minerva," he paused and gave her a look that said 'two could play at that game', "I would hope that they would remember their transfiguration lessons and conjure a small bit of marble to take the force of the blow. However you know as well as I do that transfiguration, especially transfiguration at the rate at which combat demands, is tiring on the best of wizards, which is why I will be focusing on the levitation charm."

The elderly professor nodded her head at his explanation and returned to her tea, which allowed her to survey the student body over the rim of her teacup. Twenty minutes before the start of class he excused himself and made his way down the stairs closest to the exit, tapping Elena and informing her that her presence would be appreciated for the first few minutes of class for those students fifth year and above. "Of course Harry, I will be there shortly." Came the smooth reply of his colleague.

She arrived only a few minutes before the students began to filter in. He thanked her and continued pacing his classroom. When all the students were seated he scanned the room, feeling a few tugs of apprehension and quite a bit of contempt from the students with silver and green badges. He quickly took roll and set the parchment into a drawer. "Welcome to your Fifth Year of Defense Against the Dark Arts. During your time here you've had a Fraud, a Death Eater, a crazed Ministry Lackey, and a Werewolf. Common opinion says that Professors Lupin and Crouch were the only competent professors you've had. My class will be much different; it will be mostly practical with theory being assigned for homework. I won't assign many essays but you will have a short answer assignment each week for me, but I will be giving you seven days to complete it. Professor Smith here will have you once a week to work with you on Occlumency. Since Legillimency is one of Voldemort's" the class hissed, half in fright, the other in contempt, Harry stared them down and continued.

"Voldemort's most useful weapon. He can use it to learn the information he needs while seeding terror and doubt throughout our population. What she is teaching you may save someone's life some day. What I'm teaching you WILL save your life someday. I'm going to hand out a syllabus of spells that I expect you all to have at least ninety percent proficiency with by the end of September so that we can move onto harder stuff. If you are having any prolonged trouble with these spells please consider joining me on Saturday evenings when I will be running the DA in the Great Hall." His eyes scanned the classroom, nobody dared interrupt, his stance was imposing and he was twice the size he was when they last saw him in June.

He passed out the syllabus, which consisted of many of the spells they had learned over the first four years at Hogwarts and had three separate check boxes next to each spell. "Proficient" "Silent" and "Point". "Does anyone have any questions as to the Syllabus?" A few of the Hufflepuffs weren't sure what he meant by 'point' and he explained, "Point casting means that you've mastered the spell enough that you don't need to use the wand movement to achieve the proper result. Incantations and wand movements help you focus your magic and will power into your desired effect. With enough practice you can drop the incantation, and with even more you can drop the movements as well. I only want you to have ninety percent of the proficient boxes filled in by October, the rest we will work on when we have time and in the DA. Now are there any spells that anyone would like to specifically work on today?"

For the rest of class he separated the class into groups of two, having them practice shield charms. Elena excused herself when they got to the practical portion of class and he waved a quick goodbye before returning his focus to the class. He was almost daring the Slytherins to try and pull something but something about his demeanor must have gotten across that he wasn't going to be very nice if he got interrupted. By the end of class all the students that hadn't had the shield charm checked off had become proficient with it, and those that had it down already were able to cast it silently most of the time. He had copies of the syllabi he handed out and they updated themselves with the student's name and what they had filled out.

He was perusing these when Dumbledore wandered into his classroom, hands clasped behind him, his gray-blue eyes scanning the room. With a quick thought Harry had the desks back in their proper places and the scorch marks cleaned from the wall. Grinning his Headmaster conjured a paisley armchair opposite Harry and took a seat. "How was your first class Harry? I saw no points being shifted from you, nor did any detentions come across my desk so from a disciplinary angle it seems to have gone smoothly."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the old man before answering, "I didn't really give the students an opportunity to earn any points, though that might be because I'm used to teaching in the DA where I couldn't award my students with anything but praise. I will try to ask more questions in the future to elicit discussion and perhaps spawn opportunities to award students who are quite obviously paying attention." He went on to explain his idea about the proficiency syllabus and handed across one of his Hufflepuff's sheets.

Dumbledore scanned the sheet and nodded, noting that nothing on the sheet was out of line and that Harry's expectations weren't impossible. "How many students do you expect to learn point casting Harry? It is a very difficult thing to do but once you manage it for a few spells you can do many wondrous things with magic."

Harry shrugged, "Not too many, it isn't something I will be grading on, perhaps extra credit. I've been working on it myself and I agree, once I got my stunner, shield, and levitation spells down the rest of them came easily because I understood exactly what my magic was doing. If I can get them to practice that they will be learning theory despite their best efforts." He grinned and Dumbledore joined him in a quiet chuckle.

"It seems that you have everything in hand, will you be continuing the DA? I don't mean to push more responsibility on you…" Dumbledore trailed off.

Harry nodded, "I do plan on keeping the DA going but in a supervisory role. I was hoping to get Hermione and Ron and the others to step up and take a leading role. Would you be okay with Mark, Simon, and Coggy coming in to take part? I have been training Mark in magic and I want Simon and Coggy to do some one on one training with Ron and Neville. They have potential for Psy Warriors."

A bell chimed and Harry jumped up, pulling his robes out and expanding them in one movement, throwing them on over his clothes. "I've got to run to Transfiguration, can we catch up after my first week?" He stopped long enough to hear Dumbledore give his ascent before he ran out of the classroom and down the hall, making his way towards McGonagall's classroom.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I really appreciate the reviews that I have been getting, someone went far enough to give me a full blown review full of ideas. I encourage this. Sometimes I get stuck and I need a kick in the ass to keep going. Let me know if there is something you want to see, and if it fits with my vision of the story I would be happy to fit it in.**

**I realize that this chapter and the last were a bit short, but I think they get a bit longer after this.**

**Thank you for reading and please Rate and Review.**

**-PP**

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><p>Professor McGonagall nodded at him briefly as he slid into his chair next to Ron just as the bell rang for class. "Welcome back to Transfiguration ladies and gentlemen. Our focus this year will be on conjuration, the art of bringing into existence that which never was. As with all transfiguration the main thing to remember is visualization." She continued on with her lecture, Harry mindlessly flicking his wand at his desk, creating figurines of his friends as well as Padfoot and Prongs, animating them to chase each other around.<p>

What he hadn't realized was that he was distracting the entire class with his spell work. "Mr. Potter. Care to explain why you felt the need to distract my entire class?" Harry looked up, everyone in class was staring at his desk, and with his slight lapse in concentration both 'Padfoot' and 'Prongs' tripped over their own feet and skidded off the side of his desk, crashing to the floor moments later.

"Err, I didn't realize that I was being disruptive, I was just applying what you were talking about, I figured that starting with something small would be best, and then I set about animating them with a charm Fil…Professor Flitwick was teaching me at breakfast." Harry looked uncomfortable, not sure if he had done right or not.

McGonagall gave him a curt nod before returning to her lecture. Hermione gave him a look that chastised him for interrupting class when she was trying to learn. He flashed her a cheeky grin and levitated his broken figurines back onto his desk, repaired them, and set them about each other again.

Professor McGonagall held him back after class. "Harry you seem to have an advanced understanding of transfiguration, where did this come from?" Harry shrugged and explained the conversation he and Dumbledore had about understanding magic.

"Since then, I've been experimenting with a few things, also since I've mastered my Occlumency I have been able to visualize things much better and thus my transfigurations and conjuring have gotten much better."

She nodded in understanding and waved him off, "Well keep at it, I enjoy having more Gryffindors putting in the extra time." Harry grinned and stood up, explaining that he had to make it back to his own classroom before his next class began. Professor McGonagall waved him off and he set off, pulling his robes over his head as he went and shrinking them as he stuffed them into his pocket.

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><p>After dinner that night Harry collapsed into his favorite chair by the fire. Though it was still early September, the castle was drafty and the fire was welcoming. "I am so glad that I learned that I could translocate inside the castle, otherwise my Mondays would not work at all." He had seen three of his seven classes for the week that day, the remaining days of the week he only had one class per day which was the only thing that kept him sane throughout his very long day.<p>

Hermione sat at one end of the couch, her feet on Ron's lap at the other end, her Transfiguration book in her hand, "Do you think anyone else would be able to punch a hole like you do? It could compromise the security of the castle if word got out."

Harry shook his head, "Nah, I have to put a decent amount of power into it, and from what Severus told me at lunch, I have quite a deep power reserve as far as my mental abilities go compared to him or even Tom. Also Tom wouldn't even think of using anything but Magic, and he doesn't see Legillimency as anything but Magic so I don't see how he would stumble upon the idea of translocation when apparating works just as well for him."

Ron looked up from a pile of parchment that he had been scrawling on, taking advantage of the break in conversation, "So Harry will you be playing Quiddich this year or no?" Hermione kicked him and he winced, "What? What'd I do?"

"We were having a rather serious conversation Ronald, and you're worried about Quiddich?" Hermione was giving him a very angry look. Ron look sheepishly at her feet in his lap, mumbling to himself about innocent questions.

Harry was laughing, but the topic of conversation had garnered the attention of the rest of the common room. "No, I won't be playing Quiddich, it wouldn't really be fair to the other teams." This elicited groans and yells of anger, which caused Harry to stand on his chair so that he could see everyone, "I can find the Snitch and capture it without taking off on my broom, it is mostly instinct for me at this point and I don't want to cause the team to forfeit the match."

The yelling reduced to a simmer of grumbles and everyone returned to their studying and homework. Harry returned to his seat and turned to Ginny, who was sitting across the fire form him, "You'll do great as seeker, Ron will have to hold tryouts, but I doubt that anyone will out fly you. If you'd like you can borrow my broom, not that you need it." He winked which caused her to blush but she nodded and mouthed 'thank you' where Ron couldn't see it.

The rest of his week went more or less uneventfully. Without meaning to he ended up showing off in most of his classes due to his newfound understanding of magic. Probably due to his teaching schedule he wasn't due in Potions until Friday afternoon, and despite his truce with Snape he wasn't looking forward to his least favorite class.

Thursday morning brought distraction in the form of his 6th year NEWT DADA class. It was smaller than his First through Fifth year classes as you needed an EE or better on your DADA OWL in order to get in. All of his DA members as well as the Slytherin contingent of Malfoy, Zabini, Parkinson, Davis, and Greengrass made up the roster. Without Crabbe and Goyle to back him up, Malfoy was not as immediately as acidic as he normally would be, however it didn't take him long to disrupt class. Soon after Harry passed out and explained the Syllabus he spoke up, "What exactly gives you the authority to teach this class Potter? Bending over for the Headmaster are we?" He laughed and looked around for support from his fellow Slytherins, only finding support from Pansy and Blaise.

"Ten points from Slytherin for insulting a professor, a further five for not addressing me properly. When we're in my classroom Mr. Malfoy, its Professor Potter." Malfoy scowled at him but did not retort. "Furthermore I do not need to explain or prove myself to you. My appointment was approved by the Board of Governers and the Heads of House, yes even Professor Snape. However since you've so nicely volunteered to be made an example of, how about a friendly wager?"

Malfoy was looking uncomfortable but he raised an eyebrow at Harry, motioning him to continue, "You and I duel right now as an example to the class, give them an idea of what I expect from them. The duel will last for five minutes, or until one of us is unable to continue. For every minute you last I will excuse you from one week of my class, I'll call it independent study so you won't get yelled at by another professor. However if you lose you will serve detention with me every Sunday evening for each minute that remains before the five minute limit from when you lose. Do you accept?"

Draco was looking around nervously but both Blaise and Pansy were egging him on. Tracey and Daphne were also urging him, but he could tell that their goal was to watch Draco be soundly defeated. Not wanting to let his fellow purebloods down Malfoy stood and strode to a point in the room opposite Harry and assumed a dueling stance. Harry pushed the rest of the students back gently and erected a dueling shield to protect them from stray spells. "Mr. Malfoy, try not to use any spells that I will have to report you for, we will start on Ms. Davis' signal."

From outside the shield Tracey drew her wand and a few seconds later fired red sparks that arched over the domed top of the shield. As soon as the red light left her wand Draco burst into action, hammering Harry with a volley of spells hoping to catch him off guard. Just as swiftly Harry had predicted Draco's plan of attack and threw up appropriate shields as Draco called out his attacks. It took slightly longer than Harry expected for Draco to tire and just after the one minute mark of the duel Harry slipped a silent, point cast stunner in between his opponents shields and dropped the blond boy to the ground unceremoniously. It wasn't a fancy duel but Harry had achieved his victory without being too showy about it. He summoned Draco's wand as he dropped the dueling shield and strode across the room to revive him.

Pansy was glaring at him as he enervated Draco and offered him a hand to pull him to his feet. Draco accepted it grudgingly and politely accepted his wand back from Harry. "Draco you lasted just over a minute so you owe me four Sundays. Meet me here after dinner and try not to be late. They won't be very long detentions if you show up on time and don't argue with me too much." The boy nodded as he returned to his seat, and accepted the offer of chocolate from Hermione whom he had to pass to sit down. Pansy tried to fawn over him but he shrugged her off, focusing on eating the chocolate to restore some of the energy he had expended during the duel.

"Now as I was saying I expect a ninety percent proficiency on these spells by the end of the month, and I'm hoping that you will be able to master silent casting by the Christmas holidays. I will be running the DA on Saturday evenings in the Great Hall for those who are interested in getting some extra spell work in with a proper tutor. Everyone is welcome, and I hope that you Slytherins won't be too proud to join us, it helps a lot more than you might think." They spent the rest of the class brushing up on some of the more complicated spells on the list, Hermione and Neville breaking apart halfway through class to work on casting silent shields.

After the double period was over they all filed out to head to lunch together. Harry stayed behind to check his copies of the syllabi, telling his friends he would catch them up in a few minutes. When he was bent over his filing cabinet in his office stowing the papers away he was suddenly aware of emotions other than his own in the room. Turning he saw Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass standing in his doorway. He took his seat and gestured to the girls to sit in his guest chairs, "How can I help you two?" he asked, adopting an attentive posture.

"We just wanted to tell you that we really enjoyed your class, you have a great approach to teaching and it is refreshing after a year of that vile woman last year." Said Tracey, smiling at him genuinely. Daphne took over at this point, "Yeah and we also wanted to thank you for 'demonstrating' to Draco without completely shaming him. You gave him a fair chance to back out and you didn't use anything outside of his repertoire to prove your point. It gives him less ammunition to complain about later, especially since he had an audience for the duel."

Harry nodded, "I honestly don't think that Draco is a bad person," he began, but stopped. Where had that come from? Am I subconsciously reading people and more importantly is it changing my opinions of them? He continued, "He felt the need to duel me after you all urged him into it, backing down would not have been very Pureblood of him, no offense." They both waved him off, "None taken, we're both from relatively new Pureblood families, so we don't actually see ourselves as Draco sees himself." Harry nodded and his stomach took that lull in the conversation to make its needs known.

"Well as you can tell I'm looking forward to lunch. I'm also looking forward to seeing you two on Saturday evening, need to spice it up somehow. Two pretty witches from Slytherin will certainly keep people on their toes." As he said this he stood and walked out of the classroom with the two girls. "Why professor," drawled Tracey good-naturedly, "Is it really appropriate for you to bring attention to the appearance of two of your students?"

Harry laughed and gestured to the door of the classroom they were leaving behind, "Oh I stopped being a professor when we walked out of the room, now I'm just plain old Harry." Daphne grinned at him and said mischievously, "Oh I highly doubt that there is anything plain about you Mr. Potter." All three of the teens broke into laughter as they entered the Great Hall and separated, heading to their respective house tables.

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><p><strong>AN: I can have two of these, right? Someone requested that they get to know more about me (probably because my profile is empty and I'm too lazy to be bothered with it. I'm a graduate student in my mid-20's. Some of my classes give me time to write, some don't. I have a heavier load this semester, thus the slower updates. I would like to thank you all for following along and I appreciate your patronage. Hope you all had lovely Valentine's day last week ;)**

**-PP**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I've realized with the posting of this chapter that the italics from my text editor haven't been copying over to my Chapters here. I will go back and edit them when I have time, but I'm kinda peeved about it.**

**In any case welcome to another chapter, I hope that you find it as interesting as all the rest and I look forward to reviews if you have them (please?)**

**-PP**

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><p>After lunch Harry and the other 6th year Gryffindors that were continuing in potions headed down to the potions dungeon, meeting the rest of the 'N.E.W.T.' students outside of the classroom. Draco was attempting to bait them, confident while Harry was not a professor outside of his classroom. Harry deliberately ignored him and began to quiz Neville about different potions ingredients. The normally shy boy was answering them as quick as Harry was asking and before long he was shooting back questions of his own. By the time Snape came from his office to let them into the lab most of the class was chuckling quietly at the display of the two boys. Their professor's presence, however, dampened the mood and they all regained their composure and filed into the room. Harry and Ron went to sit together at their usual table but Snape interrupted them from the front of the classroom, "Mr. Potter, since you've expressed so much confidence in the abilities of Mr. Longbottom perhaps you should partner with him this term." Harry shrugged and grabbed his potions kit from the table, switching positions with Hermione at the station she was setting up with Neville. His friend was giving him an odd look but didn't say anything in order to avoid losing any points from the strict professor.<p>

"Since you all seemed to have duped the O.W.L. proctors that you are competent brewers you will start your term by assisting me in fulfilling an order that the Headmaster has agreed to donate to the 'Potter-Black Werewolves Alliance'. As Wolvesbane is a creation of my own design you will not find it in your textbook. The instructions are on the board and the abnormal ingredients can be found in the student supply cupboard. Since these are meant for consumption please ask me before you make a mistake that could render the potion volatile, or worse, inert. If I find that any of your potions were deliberately tampered with you will find yourself ruing the day you stepped foot into my dungeon. Are we clear?" He scanned the room of solemn faces, all of them hoping to avoid his direct attention. "Then begin. If you have to start over and you run out of time, schedule additional lab time with me before you leave."

The students lurched into motion, Harry scanned the ingredients list and made his way to the supply cupboard for the non-standard ingredients. When he returned Neville had finished setting up his cauldron in the middle of their workstation with the base for the potion filling it halfway as per the instructions. "What did he mean?" asked Neville as Harry slid the first few ingredients to him to chop and then work into a paste. "Snape? I told him that if he didn't breathe down your neck during class that you could produce a more than passable potion and explained that you knew ingredients better than anyone in our year." Neville nodded slowly as he rendered the paste to the correct consistency before checking his timer and slowly adding it to the cauldron. "Do you think he will be different in class this year? I think that I can handle it if he lets me do my work." Harry smiled at Neville's comment, "Yes, he should behave himself a little bit better. I have something that he wants so he is going to have to remain civil. Just focus on the potion, it's for a good cause." Neville flashed a grin at his lab partner and returned to rendering the different ingredients into their required states.

Halfway through the class period Snape came around the room to examine their progress. He told a few people to start over, giving suggestions as to where they blundered. Unsurprisingly he praised most of his Slytherins, only telling one pair to adjust their heat before the potion became too volatile. When he passed by Neville and Harry he looked down his nose to examine the bubbling potion. He must have found whatever he saw acceptable because he simply nodded and began to move to Hermione and Ron's station down the row, before he got far however a voice interrupted him. "Professor? I have a question about the potion." Both Snape and Harry were surprised that Neville would call attention to himself, but Snape turned and walked back to their station. "Yes, Mr. Longbottom? Your potion seems to be progressing nicely." Neville nodded and took a breath before replying, "I'm not having difficulty per se, but I wanted your opinion on a modification to the potion that occurred to me as we have been working on it." The class went silent at this, Neville Longbottom of all people was trying to modify a potion that Snape himself had created, it was a death wish.

"Mr. Longbottom I put a lot of effort into creating this potion, what do you think could add to the process?" Neville lifted the lid on his Potions kit and opened one of the spare drawers, pulling out a vial of what looked to be dried orange peel. "If I am reading these ingredients correctly, adding this to the potion just before it is complete will have a neutral outcome on the effect of the potion while neutralizing the bitter taste somewhat for the drinker." Snape arched an eyebrow and stared at the stoic Gryffindor. Neville, to his credit, held the gaze and his conviction that he hadn't said anything stupid. After a minute Snape nodded and gestured to the potion before him, "If you and Mr. Potter would like to experiment with your idea, I will not deduct points if the potion fails. I can tell right now that you are past the difficult portions of the potion and as long as nothing interferes you will receive an O for your work. If your adaptation doesn't render the potion inert then perhaps we could discuss making it an extra credit effort." Neville nodded and Harry grinned at him. Snape stepped away and finished his rounds before returning to his desk.

As Harry and Neville finished their potion, with Neville's modification included, and began to bottle it Harry tapped his potions professor and gave the equivalent of a raspberry across the link. _"Yes, yes, Mr. Longbottom seems to know what he is talking about. I'm surprised that more students don't apply what they've learned in Herbology in my classroom. Now I need to discuss a time for us to work on my Occlumency, I suppose with that display today that remedial potions is out."_ Harry rolled his eyes and thought for a minute before replying, _"Why don't we call it academic planning and tell people that Dumbledore pushed you on to me as my mentor for teaching. It is feasible enough that people would believe it, he is always trying to make us play nice." _ Snape caught his eye and nodded and turned to accept a rack of potions from one of the groups. Everyone except the groups that were told to restart submitted finished potions be the end of the double period and were happy to be out of the classroom. The remaining pairs put stasis spells on their cauldrons and stored them for whenever they were able to make it back into the lab.

Harry, Neville, Hermione, and Ron discussed the class at length as they slowly made their way up to the Great Hall for dinner. They were still discussing Neville's addition to the potion when Harry felt Dumbledore tapping him. "_Sorry to interrupt Harry but I forgot to mention that we hold staff meetings after dinner on Friday evenings. You are required to attend I'm afraid, just join the staff as they file out of the Hall after dinner._" Harry sent his acknowledgement as Ron asked him if he wanted to go for a fly once they finished eating. Sighing dramatically Harry groaned, "I have a staff meeting after dinner. If I get out early enough I'll join you guys. Get Ginny out on my Firebolt and get her used to it since she'll most likely take my place as Seeker." Ginny heard her name from down the table and said lecherously to the rest of the table, "Hear that guys? I get to ride Harry Potter's broomstick." The Gryffindor table burst into laughter and Harry suppressed a blush and was distracted by another hint of jealousy from behind him. With the other three house tables situated behind him he hadn't narrowed down his search for the mystery person by much, but he could at least rule out his own house.

Harry stood with his friends and waved to them as they left the Great Hall and made his way over to the head table. He made polite conversation with Professor Flitwick as they waited for the rest of the professors to finish eating. Soon they were all sated and, with teacups in hand, they filed out of the Great Hall. Harry found a seat at the end of the staff table closer to Professor McGonagall once they arrived in the staff room and busied himself flipping through his copies of his students' syllabi. A few of them were glowing and he noted that many of his Hufflepuffs had held a study session with their Ravenclaw counterparts and had made significant progress. Hearing his name he looked up from the sheaf of papers, "I'm sorry Headmaster I was lost in thought, what was the question?"

Dumbledore grinned at him from the other end of the table and repeated himself, "I was asking you how your classes were going, you gave me an idea of your initial lesson plan but perhaps you could share with your colleagues." Harry nodded and passed a few of the freshly updated syllabi around the table, "I gave all of my classes a deadline of the first class in October to be proficient with all of the spells on their syllabi. They are catered to each year and are all spells that they were taught previously. I explained to Professor Dumbledore that I don't expect silent or point casting from anyone and I'm treating that as extra credit, and my students are well aware of my expectations." He added that when the individual heads of houses all opened their mouths to interrupt him. They settled down and he continued on, "I've invited all of my students to participate in the Defense Association on Saturday evenings for extra tutoring but I might extend this to other subjects as well. While I may believe that Defense is the most important subject, I am teaching it and as such I am biased. I would prefer to include students whose strength lies elsewhere than create rifts where none should exist."

Almost the entire staff was nodding along with him, a few of those that had been against his appointment were now changing their outlook. Since he was handling it maturely and would be a great asset to all of the students, they were seeing some of what Dumbledore saw in him. Snape merely refrained from scoffing but Harry felt it as if it were a pat on the back. That didn't last long however as when Harry finished speaking Snape interjected something that had been bothering him, "Professor Potter," he began, his tone even and calm, "Why is it that your only assigned detention for the week is to Mr. Malfoy? Surely you should expect him to act out against your appointment." Harry grinned at the Potions Professor, "Professor Snape, Mr. Malfoy did question my…credentials so I challenged him to a friendly duel. I limited spells to those that were on my syllabus and allowed one of his house mates to signal the start. As a friendly wager I told him that if he lasted for five minutes he could skip the first five weeks of my class, but for every minute short of five he lasted he owed me a weeks detention. He didn't last much longer than a minute so he owes me four Sundays of detention. I gave him an out, he decided not to take it." Snape nodded before speaking, "What exactly are you going to assign for his detention? I believe that your detentions must be pre-approved by the headmaster."

Harry smiled sweetly and drew a book from his backpack and threw it towards Snape, allowing it to slide to a rest a few inches from where the Professor was leaning on the table. "I am going to assign him some extracurricular homework from that book. It is more of a Herbology or Transfiguration assignment but I am aiming for an attitude adjustment, which is what I believe is the purpose for detentions." Snape snarled and muttered under his breath, 'Not that you've gotten that out of any of yours,' before reaching for the book. "A muggle biology text? What do you expect him to learn from this?" Dumbledore spoke up at this point, a smug grin adorning his face, "I believe Severus, that Harry is hoping that Draco learns that blood is blood, no matter who it comes from. Is that your goal Harry?" The Defense Professor nodded before adding, "Yeah that or maybe a little warning about inbreeding." Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick both snorted and Snape glared at him before sliding the book back across the table. Harry floated it in to his bag and retook his seat.

The rest of the table was staring at him however, with the exception of Professor Dumbledore, "Uhm, Harry dear did you just do wandless magic?" Professor McGonagall looked a little bit pale at the thought. "No ma'am," Harry replied easily, grinning at his Head of House, "I've been training this summer with psionics, I can manipulate the world around me using the power of my mind. It is one of the reasons that Professor Snape has requested my help with his Occlumency. It would be hard for me to explain everything that I can do, but rest assured that I can take care of myself, though sadly I cannot continue as the Gryffindor seeker." Professor McGonagall was somehow more upset about this development than she was about his apparent wandless magic, "What do you mean Harry? Surely you can continue, I personally had your Quiddich ban lifted!" She was almost bouncing in her seat while Snape grinned from across the table.

"I'm sorry Professor, but I can locate and catch the snitch reliably within 30 seconds of its release, it would be an unfair advantage since I can't just 'turn off' my abilities. The snitch itself is immune to magic but what I am doing is technically not magic, I could summon it to my hand without thinking about it. Rest assured I've loaned my broom to Ginny and she's outside right now practicing to take my spot. Ron took it rather well actually." While McGonagall opened and closed her mouth in frustration Harry turned to the Headmaster, "Sir, Professor Snape and I have concocted a cover for our Occlumency lessons, we are going to call it 'Academic Planning' as you have assigned Professor Snape as my faculty mentor." Dumbledore chuckled at this, "Oh have I? Why in my old age I seem to forget the things that I do from day to day, but that sounds like an excellent idea. Is there anything else that needs to be addressed before I call this meeting to a close?"

Professor Flitwick stood up in his chair to get everyone's attention, "Actually I have noticed a dramatic change in Ms. Lovegood's attention span. It seems to have grown by leaps and bounds, not that I didn't understand the girl's predicament before, but she's been able to remain coherent for my entire class and her grades have moved up from the middle of the Ravenclaw pack." A few other professors agreed with this, having noticed the change themselves, all of them were curious as to the development. "Uh," Harry began, as he sheepishly raised his hand, "That was me. She's got the potential to be as strong as Professor Snape in the mind arts, but she's been a wild Legillimens the entire time that she's been here. I helped her build her shields on the train to school and she's been able to keep everyone out, which leads to her actually being able to do her homework and pay attention in class."

The table was silent again until Dumbledore broke the silence, "Indeed? Well done Harry, that must have been nerve wracking for her to be around so many powerful minds for such an extended period. I wonder why nobody noticed the problem before?" Harry nodded and replied, "Well when she talks about snorkacks and such it is hard for us to believe it if she were to tell us that she hears our thoughts. I diagnosed her when she told me that I was 'quiet' compared to everyone else. I used a quick and dirty technique that Elena used with me to teach her how to put up her occlumency shields. It wouldn't work for everyone, but I was like she was at the beginning of the summer, picking up stray thoughts from people in a two mile radius, it was rather extreme." Dumbledore nodded and picked up a small wooden hammer, "Well with that, I am going to call this meeting to a close. Harry don't hesitate to ask anyone for help if you need it." Harry smiled at him and they all moved to escape the staff room, ready for their weekends to begin.

By the time that Harry made it to the Entrance Hall his friends were coming in from the Quiddich pitch. "Harry I have no idea how you handle this thing, but I'm going to learn it if it is the last thing that I do." Ginny prattled excitedly, towing his broom over her shoulder. Ron, Neville, and Hermione were right behind them talking animatedly, "Ginny was amazing up there, but she keeps telling me that she could be better." Ron told him as they made their way up the steps. "Would you come to tryouts with me next weekend? I realize that you can't play but that doesn't mean you can't help me manage the team." Harry grinned at his friend and nodded, "Of course Ron, I'd be happy to help you pick out your new team." Hermione rolled her eyes and Neville let out a laugh as they made their way up the stairs. The boys had a few games of exploding snap while Hermione read ahead in her textbooks and Ginny wrote a letter to her mother. She forced Ron to write a few paragraphs before she sealed it and looked at her watch, "Darn it, entirely too late to head to the Owlrey…unless you want to lend me your cloak Harry?"

Harry shook his head, "Not worth getting caught, and besides I'm a **Professor**. Hang on and I'll just ask Hedwig to come down here." Unsure if it would work, Harry tapped his owl and sent images of the common room to her. He received a soft 'coo' in return and soon after Hedwig was tapping against the glass. "How did you do that Harry?" Ginny asked as she went to the window and let the snowy owl indoors. "Hedwig do you mind doing a run to the Burrow? I've got a letter for mum." Hedwig bumped the redheaded girl on the forehead gently and grasped the letter in her beak before taking off again out the window. "You know how I explained about 'tapping'?" His friends nodded, they were all but alone in the common room now, most everyone else exhausted from the first week of classes. "I did that with Hedwig but I sent her images of the Common Room and hoped that she'd get the idea. Apparently I have a very smart owl." Ginny thanked him for the loan of his owl and took his turn in Exploding Snap, causing the pile to immolate quickly, ending the game.

Hermione cut in before the boys could complain about the abrupt end to their game, "Harry, can you teach us how to 'tap' one another? I know I did it accidentally a few weeks ago but being able to communicate with you would be dreadfully useful." Harry shrugged and asked everyone to get comfortable sitting around him in a circle by the fire. "Okay, I'm going to tap each of you in turn so that you get a feel for what it is like. You all have rudimentary shields so you might feel something slightly outside of your mind, we can work on building those up later. Eventually you'll learn what different people feel like, for example I can differentiate between the guys and Dumbledore and Elena and Alistair." They nodded and he gazed at them in turn, tapping them and saying "_Slytherins sneak slyly, surreptitiously stealing stogies._" The all grinned as they received the message, the feeling against their basic shields somehow extremely 'Harry'. Neville frowned for a moment before screwing up his face slightly and Harry felt a tap on his shields. Allowing it entrance he heard his lab partner say, "_Hufflepuffs happily help heat hearty hamburgers._" Harry smiled broadly, "Good job Nev! That is exactly what you want to do." Hermione looked shocked and said, "Did he just tap you Harry? He's only felt you do it a few times."

Neville smiled sheepishly and said, "Gran had me doing Occlumency lessons over the summer after what happened to Harry at the ministry. No offense mate but she was worried about me being possessed like you were in the Atrium." Harry waved it off and turned to the rest of his friends, "You can all catch up easily to where he is. You are starting your classes with Elena next week and she will have your shields up to snuff in no time." They all nodded excitedly, though Hermione seemed to be peeved that she wasn't even the second one in their group to learn something new.

Harry yawned and stood up, stretching as he did so. "I've had a long week, and I can sleep in tomorrow so I shall. See you guys at lunch." His friends laughed amiably and Harry padded up the stairs to the 6th year dorm. He fell into bed without changing out of his clothes, though he didn't notice when Dobby popped in and, with a snap of his knobby fingers, changed him into pajamas and tucked him in. "Sleep well Harry Potter sir." Whispered the elf, before popping out of the room.

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><p><strong>AN: Again, please leave me a review if you find something that doesn't make sense, I promise you that I didn't mean to do that.**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Harry's first weekend will be a bit longer than the rest, and I realize that it seems a bit day by day at this point but things will pick up once most of the setting for the new year is done. **

**I'm always looking for reviews and suggestions so please don't hold back if you have something that is nagging you.**

**One question though, are the chapters a good length? Are they too short? Too long? I'm never sure what I should be making them. Let me know.**

**Please favorite and review.**

**-PP**

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><p>Saturday brought light showers, which seemed to subdue the entire population of Hogwarts. The gloom was more present in the Great Hall than anywhere else with the ceiling broadcasting the cloudy and damp day outside. Harry was unusually bright as he worked his way through the most balanced breakfast Hermione had ever seen him eat. "Harry," she started after joining him at the table with Ron, Ginny, and Neville close behind her, "how can you be so chipper this morning? You practically passed out when you went to bed last night." Harry grinned and speared a last piece of fruit from the serving bowl in front of Ginny. "I was up early, I went for a run before it got too disgusting out, had a glorious shower, and now I'm eating a lovely breakfast, what isn't there to be happy about?"<p>

Ron, who thoroughly disagreed with rising before 9 a.m. let alone doing exercise that early looked worried about his friend, "Who can be that excited about morning exercise? I thought you were having a lie in. You're slipping mate." Harry just shook his head and stood up from the table. "If anyone needs me I'll be in the Room of Requirement training. Feel free to join me when you're done, just have Dobby pop in before you to make sure that I'm not doing anything dangerous." He winked at Hermione, who looked as if she were going to tie him to the bench if he was just going to wander off and get himself hurt, before turning to leave the hall, whistling as he went.

"Is it me," Ginny began slowly, "Or did we get an entirely different Harry back after his summer away?" Neville finished his hastily crafted breakfast sandwich and wiped his hands on his jeans before replying, "Definitely different Ginny, he's much more confident in himself and doesn't consider anything that he accomplishes simply a fluke. Dumbledore seems happy with his performance in class and Snape has even accepted his forced attitude adjustment. Our old Harry would be nervous and would shy away from praise. Now he takes everything in stride and still has the reflexes to stun and disarm Malfoy without breaking a sweat. Harry isn't entirely gone, but he has certainly been refined." With that the no longer stocky boy stood and followed Harry's path out of the Great Hall.

When Ginny, Hermione, and Ron finally made their way to the Room of Requirements and had Dobby to check that the coast was clear. The elf nodded quickly and the door creaked open to reveal a larger replica of Harry's classroom. In the center was a dueling shield and Harry and Neville were throwing spells at each other, deflected and missed spells sparking against the barrier as they dueled. A few minutes later Neville finally submitted and the shield fell as Harry walked across the scorch-marked floor. "Good duel Nev, you've got a lot of power to burn through, and a few of your spells could have used more of a kick though." The brunet boy nodded and took Harry's offered hand up, Dobby popped in with water and a tray of orange slices and chocolate pieces. Harry and Neville took a few bites of each to restore their energy and each took a pull on the water bottles to rehydrate. "Thanks Harry, I've been practicing all summer and Gram finally got me a new wand after Dad's got smashed at the ministry."

"Your new one definitely suits you better." Harry agreed readily. He turned to the rest of his friends and smiled brightly, "You all ready to work on Tapping?" They all nodded excitedly and the room morphed to a comfortable lounge. "Pick a seat that would make you the most comfortable and we will get started." Neville threw himself onto a beanbag chair while Ginny curled up in a deep cushioned papasan chair. Ron and Hermione settled into a love seat, their pinkies intertwined, and Harry fell into a leather recliner. "Okay, Neville since you got the hang of this last night I want you to try to tap everyone else, just a quick message to say 'Hello'." Neville nodded, his eyes closed, and a few minutes later they all felt a strong and sturdy presence knocking on their occlumency shields. Harry greeted his friend readily and the rest worked more slowly, working their almost unfamiliar shields to allow their friend access. "Good job Neville, now I want the ladies to try to reverse that feeling and tap Neville while I work with Ron." They all nodded and closed their eyes.

Harry immediately tapped his friend and opened a connection, _"I want you to focus on this feeling, feel your shields and how they react to what I'm doing." _He could feel Ron's affirmation and felt as his friend sent feelers along his shields, working out the space that they covered and the holes and weaknesses that existed throughout. _"Good, now I'm going to break the connection, and I want you to focus on recreating it. Force your mental will outward and search for my mental signature, do you think you can recognize it?" _ Again, Ron's affirmation was obvious to Harry so he gently disconnected their minds and sat back, mentally examining the room around him. The room was a powerhouse of psionic energy, which made sense to Harry since the room morphed to the user's will. He was about to examine the source point for the energy when he felt a feeble scraping of tendrils against his shields. Focusing, he threw out a life preserver of mental energy to Ron, reassuring him that he was on the correct path. Soon he felt the overwhelming sense of loyalty that was the base of Ron's personality and allowed him to make the connection, _"Harry? Did I do this correctly? I couldn't find you but then I suddenly felt your mind and pushed forward…" _Harry grinned to himself and used the connection to talk to Ron, _"Yeah Ron, no worries, you've got it all sorted out. Good job, try tapping Neville and then the girls in turn."_ Ron cut the connection and Harry opened his eyes, watching his friends concentrate on their psionic efforts.

Neville grinned suddenly and Harry knew that Ron had managed the connection. Harry mentally stepped back and realized that he could see the interactions as they formed. He grinned at the discovery and watched his friends work, gently nudging them as they went so that by the time they finished around lunchtime; they were all able to easily tap one another. "Okay guys, good work. Your shields all need some work, yes even you Neville. I'm crap at teaching people that aren't natural Legillimens so Professor Smith is going to have to cover that with you this week in class." They all nodded in understanding and they stood to stretch and head down to the Great Hall for lunch.

They sat in a large empty space in the middle of the Gryffindor table, Luna joining Ginny at one end of their group. The girls were soon pointing to various boys around the great hall and giggling, causing Ron and Harry to roll their eyes and start a conversation of their own with Neville and Hermione. They chatted about their first week of class and what they were looking forward to covering this year. Hermione mostly dominated this topic but the boys nodded along with her, allowing her to outline each of their courses. Harry looked around at one point and, noticing that the hall was quite full, stood and made his way to the dais that the Headmaster used for announcements. Most of the hall quieted down when they saw him take the stage and the rest followed suit when he cleared his throat. "I will be holding a meeting of the DA tonight after dinner in the Great Hall. I want everyone to know that you are all welcome, no matter your house or your strength in Defense Against the Dark Arts. In fact, I would like to invite you all to take advantage of your peers to come and do homework and have tutoring sessions to help keep everyone up to date with all of their classes and to help those that have fallen behind. If you think that you would like to offer your services as a group leader for a subject please come up and chat with me. I hope to see you all there tonight."

Harry stepped away from the podium and students from each table came forward to sign up. Slytherin students signed up for Potions tutorials mostly, but among the other houses all of the other subjects were covered, even Muggle Studies by a 7th year Hufflepuff. Harry thanked them all and told them that he would see them after dinner. He rejoined his friends at the table and was met with a proud side hug from Hermione who had slid into his spot next to Ron when he had left the table. "That is a really good idea Harry, using our organization to the benefit of everyone. What made you think to do that?"

Harry laughed slightly and recounted the tale of the staff meeting, explaining that he felt that since he was now a Professor he should act like one, dong whatever he could to support his colleagues and to help push the school forward. "Also, this way we have people who's strengths don't lie in Defense able to take either a leadership role or take the time to study ahead in their preferred class. The better that we and the other students do, the more money Hogwarts gets from the Ministry, and the more extracurricular activities we can hold to break up the monotony of the school year." He held a straight face for a few seconds before Ron burst into laughter and everyone else in earshot followed suit.

"You almost had me there for a second," began Ron, catching his breath, "Monotony, at Hogwarts, oh man." He was holding his stomach now, his laughter dying down to a fit of shakes as he gasped for air. Hermione rolled her eyes and rubbed his back while he recovered. Harry looked at his watch and saw that he had all afternoon and nothing to do. "Okay, since I missed out on the fun last night, I am going to go flying, or if Ginny prefers, take her flying and teach her the limits of my broom." Ginny nodded enthusiastically and pushed her food away to show that she was ready to leave.

"If we leave now, we should get there before anyone decides that they need it for an early quiddich practice." Harry asked Dobby kindly to retrieve his broom and by the time they had made it outdoors the hyper-loyal elf had handed the broom to Harry and popped away without a word. Soon they were both on the broom and in the sky, Harry showing Ginny how to eek the most out of a turn and just how low she could dive before she had to pull up. Soon he hopped off onto the stand and she raced around a few laps before going through a set of dives and loops that tested her ability and the capabilities of the broom simultaneously. It was a broom for racing but it served the role of seeker well, since catching the Snitch once it was visible was always a race with the opposing seeker.

They made their way back to Gryffindor tower with half the afternoon remaining and spent time catching up on their homework for the week. Since they were going to attend the new DA that night, it would be beneficial to know which classes they may have trouble in. It was still the first week but Ginny found that her Muggle Studies was getting confusing, and Harry had some theories that he wanted to discuss with some 7th years about spell work that Dumbledore had brought up to him during the week. Before long it was time for dinner and the Gryffindors in the tower made their way down to the Great Hall for dinner.

When the last student, Malfoy, finally rested his dessertspoon onto his plate the food all vanished and Dumbledore beckoned everyone remaining to rise. He flicked his wand and two sets of two house tables stacked on either side of the hall. Harry made his way through the group of students and hopped up onto the stage that held the head table. "Right, so, welcome to the new and improved DA. This is now a school-backed activity that will be held every Saturday evening save for Hogsmeade weekends where we will on Sunday evening. I will hold Defense review here," he paused and flicked his wand, and a red hue came over a third of the hall. "The rest of the area will be divided up into other courses, if more room or furniture is needed let me or a professor know and we will take care of you." He flicked his wand again and the remaining two thirds of the hall was sectioned off into equal areas, each with their own sign denoting what subject was to be covered. Dumbledore flicked his wand and the house tables broke into smaller 8-10 person tables, which oriented themselves equally among the less physical course areas.

"If you feel that your time would be better spent going over Potions or Ancient Runes I encourage you to work on your weaknesses. I won't be offended if you decide that figuring out how Neville got away with tweaking Professor Snape's own recipe is more important than your syllabi for my class. I'm sure that by the end of September you'll be past where you need to be." The students all nodded and began murmuring to themselves as they broke into groups. Most of the DA remained in the Defense area, but a few went with their friends to the Charms or Transfiguration tables.

He broke the Defense students up into groups based on the spells that they were having trouble with and assigned a team leader to each group to help teach them the spells that they were having issues with. Once Draco realized that he wouldn't have a good opportunity to disrupt the activities, he and Crabbe and Goyle slipped out the back of the hall. Harry smiled to himself at this, he was doing something to help make a difference and he wasn't dueling anyone to get results. Once he had the Defense group going he snuck away to the Arithmancy group and started picking the brains of the upper level NEWT students. Since he was more or less auditing the course he only had his own projects to go on but he made some progress and by the time the warning bell for curfew rang he felt comfortable in his next few steps.

He ran up to the stage again when the bell rang and raised his hands for silence, "I hope that you all learned something tonight or got some use out of the meeting tonight. You don't have to come every week but I encourage you to come if you have any problems, and hopefully you've made some friends in other houses that you can go to between meetings for help if need be. I hope to see a lot of you next Saturday evening, but until then, I will see you all in class. Thanks for coming." This was met with polite applause and he jumped from the stage, but not before getting hit with a moderate wave of admiration.

Hermione came up to him while everyone was getting their things together and starting to file out into the castle. "Didn't you say that you were going to have Mark, Simon, and Coggy come by and give the boys some extra work?" Harry nodded and paused to shake someone's hand as they left the Great Hall.

"For one, Simon had a date with some girl he met in town. For another I don't think the guys are ready for the kind of training I want them to do with Simon and Coggy. I'll give them a few more weeks to get their Occlumency down and I'll teach them some of the basics and then I'll bring in those guys to help Ron and Neville with the more physical stuff." Hermione nodded and the two of them joined the rest of their house as it filed out of the Hall.

The Gryffindors made their way up to their tower alongside the Ravenclaws in good spirits. As they began to climb the moving staircase Harry had an arm around Ginny and Luna, pulling them close to tell them a rather inappropriate joke in a stage whisper. Luna was laughing so hard that she nearly fell into the vanishing stair. Harry took advantage of his position and slid his arm down to grip her tightly around the middle and lifted her to the next stair. As he did he nearly dropped her as a sharp point of jealousy lanced into the back of his shields. When he turned there was nobody standing at the entrance to the dungeons that led to the Slytherin and Hufflepuff dormitories and he frowned to himself. "You alright there Harry? It was just the vanishing stair, nobody attacked me." Prompted Luna, bringing Harry's attention back to his friends.

"No I just…I thought I saw something back there. Never mind, it's probably nothing, I'll be more careful about my jokes on this part of the staircase." Luna and Ginny shrugged and Hermione called to them from the top of the stairs. Harry waved an acknowledgement and the three of them finished their climb. Harry and Ginny hugged Luna goodbye as she split from them to join her housemates making their way to their own tower. Hermione asked what had kept them and he explained that he was telling a joke and it caused Luna to miss her step on the vanishing stair. When asked to repeat the joke, he did, causing Hermione to frown at him shaking her head.

"That is entirely inappropriate Harry." She chastised as they climbed through the portrait hole and into the tower. Harry adopted his imitation Sirius grin and shrugged at Hermione before pulling her and Ginny into a group hug. He released them a moment later and threw his arms around the shoulders of his roommates, dragging Ron and Neville towards the stairs that led to the boys' room. "Is it me," began Hermione, watching as Harry tried to force the three of them up the stairs that were barely large enough for two people to pass comfortably, "Or is Harry a bit more touchy-feely this year?" Ginny shrugged and grabbed Hermione's hand and led her towards the girls' dorm.

"Honestly Hermione, I think you're just mad that he's the group hugger now." She grinned and raced up the stairs two at a time, before Hermione realized what she had said.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I'm back, sorry for the delay folks - Holidays and Group Projects take a lot of my free time. How is everyone enjoying the story so far? Anything annoy you? Make you laugh? Make you angry? Let me know in a review and I'll take it all under consideration.  
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**Haven't said it in a while, but Harry Potter . belong to J.K. Rowling - I have no aspirations of taking that from her.**

**Enjoy!**

**-PP**

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><p>By mid-afternoon on Sunday all of Harry's homework was done and he was in his office making plans for the week ahead. This was a lighter load for him this week, as he only had to teach first through fourth years. Fifth years and above were being handled by Elena who was teaching Occlumency, he was looking forward to her class. He wanted to see how she handled other students, as his only experience was her unorthodox method for teaching him. It was a few hours until dinner still and he was done with his notes so he grabbed his latest Arithmancy and Runes project from his backpack and set it upon the desk. On his left was a simple button about half an inch across and on the right was a piece of wax that he had formed using a cast of his inner ear. Despite his ability to Tap those that he wanted to speak with, he didn't want to teach everyone the secrets of Psionics so he was looking for a magical alternative. This way he could be in contact with many different people at once in a tactical situation.<p>

He got the idea from the Agents that had arrived for crowd control and disaster recovery that first day of his summer break. If he could ever get the spells to stick to the button and ear bud he could effectively re-create their radio system in a heavily magical environment. The problem he was having was syncing multiple ear buds and buttons into a single network, as well as incorporating an activation command. He was about to make a breakthrough with the command word when his door was opened abruptly and Snape stood sneering in the doorway. Harry was sure he didn't intend to sneer, but as it was his habit in public to sneer at everyone he couldn't help himself. Without flourish Harry slowly slid open his top drawer, pushed his button and ear bud on top of the stack of papers within, and pushed the drawer closed again. Then he folded his hands on his blotter and said cheerily, "Professor Snape, how can I help you today?"

Snape skulked in and closed the door behind him, sealing it swiftly with a privacy spell. "I have just been called to a meeting with the Dark Lord. I was hoping for a crash course in your method of Legillimency evasion. Since you were gone all summer long I expect to have to report on what I've learned this week and I don't know how long I can take his hammering before my shields shatter, there is just too much new information to conceal. I figure your way requires much less energy and can be sustained for an extended period of time. Can you help?" Snape didn't look concerned or sound worried. He said it all with his normal canter and at the end simply raised his eyebrow. Harry sat back for a minute before responding, he was sure that if he said 'no' Snape would go anyway and nearly get himself killed in the process.

"How soon are you expected? If we have an hour or two, I'm sure you could keep up. If you need to go right now I would probably do more harm than good." He met Snape's eyes and raised his own eyebrow. It was an effective gesture because the Potions professor finally realized he was doing it and quickly lowered his own.

"I am due soon after the start of the evening meal so that I will be missed for the smallest amount of time, nobody expects me at Sunday meals anymore so my absence won't be questioned by students or nosy professors." Harry nodded and got comfortable in his chair and motioned for Snape to do the same. If he wasn't scanning the professor's shields he wouldn't have noticed the change in posture but Snape had relaxed slightly and met Harry's eyes, inviting him to start.

Harry spoke as he pushed into Snape's mental plane, "You want to think of it like chess, you want to be at least five or ten moves ahead of your opponent. If you can see where they are trying to go, you can have appropriate memories or false memories to slide into place before they get there, it will allow you to show them what they want to see without showing them your secrets. You should also be aware of what you can give up, you know this but letting them in on smaller secrets will make them doubt the false memories less." Snape was silently agreeing with what he was saying and was starting to do the dance that was involved. Memories were gathered up and as Harry delved looking for a secret, how the Professor made his cloak billow like it did, he was shown long hours slaving over a sewing machine and practice with small wind spells. He didn't learn any of the details but he couldn't tell if this was what actually happened or if he was being led on.

Harry went after a few other memories, slowly going after more and more sensitive information. To test his pupil's temper he went after memories from his time at Hogwarts, looking for interactions with James and Sirius. Snape stumbled for a second but Harry watched as he recovered and focused on memories where Lily was involved, tempering the atmosphere between the Marauders and Snape. Taking that lead he followed the path of his mother and because he knew what he was looking for he could tell that Snape wasn't ashamed of his attitude toward Lily or the feelings he had developed. He almost hoped that Harry would react poorly to that affection, but Harry knew that it was in the past, and nothing could come of it so he left Snape in a memory of him and his mother studying for Arithmancy and joking around. It was a different side of Snape and he felt better allying himself with the man knowing that there was a human side of him, despite the fact that it was kept very close to the vest.

A few seconds later Snape rejoined him in the physical world and they stared at each other for a minute before breaking eye contact. Teaching Occlumency at that level was very intimate and required trust, Harry was glad that Snape could at the very least fake it long enough to learn what he needed. Harry glanced at his watch and saw that Snape had about ten minutes before he had to be at the Dark Lord's beck and call. "Dobby." Harry called, bringing the elf into existence in the doorway, where he knocked politely.

"You called Harry Potter sir?" Dobby looked warily at Professor Snape but Harry beckoned him closer and the elf complied.

"Can you please pack Professor Snape a couple of your granola bars? He needs to get going and he will be missing dinner, and we can't have that can we?" Dobby's eyes grew wide at the thought of someone missing a meal and he shook his head emphatically and popped out of the room. Snape raised his eyebrow but said nothing as Dobby popped back and handed him two parchment-paper wrapped granola bars stuffed with nuts and a little bits of chocolate. "Thank you Dobby, I'll be at dinner so you can prepare my meal as normal." Dobby bowed and left, presumably to finish Harry's meal. Harry turned his attention to Professor Snape, "They're quite good actually, if you think that you'll be Crucio'd I would suggest waiting until after your meeting so that you don't have to discover what they taste like coming back up as well."

Snape nodded and stood to leave, when he got to the door however he paused and turned, "Does Dobby cater all of your meals? I was under the assumption that we all got the same mass produced slop." Harry grinned at sat back in his chair, throwing his feet up on his desk.

"He has decided that I should not ever be 'house-elf sized' again and has taken it upon himself to ensure that it never happens." Snape almost grinned at the thought of a house-elf sized Harry Potter but stifled the impulse. Instead he raised his eyebrow suspiciously at Harry and waved the food at him as he walked out of sight. Harry sat back in his chair to reevaluate their interaction and make sure that he hadn't revealed anything he wished to remain a secret. It was that pose, musing and vacant, that Dobby found Harry in when he returned after the start of the evening meal and banged him on the knee with a wooden spoon.

"Harry Potter will not be missing dinner!" Harry rubbed his knee and stood, placating the angry elf with a hand gesture and waved his wand around the room. Drawers snapped shut and cabinet doors closed, a shimmer of his magical aura flowing from his feet around the room and across every surface. He nodded to himself and walked out of his office and locked it behind him, Dobby popping out when he was sure that Harry was heading to dinner. Harry whistled to himself as he made his way down to the Great Hall.

Sunday meals for Harry, since Dobby started taking over his dietary needs, had become traditional home-cooked fare. Harry strode towards the Gryffindor table, stopping to greet his friends from other houses as well as his students, smiling cheerfully at them. When he finally sat down between Ginny and Hermione a large dinner plate covered with roast beef, mashed potatoes, lima beans, and a large glass filled with something green appeared in front of him. "Oooh roast beef, Dobby does it just so and it melts in your mouth, he must have started roasting it this morning." Harry grinned and forked some into his mouth and let out a small groan of pleasure. Ron, while Harry was overcome by the rapture of his meal, frowned at his normal Hogwarts fare, and reached across the table with his fork aiming at Harry's roast beef.

Dobby popped in, standing on the table, and swung his spoon onto Ron's wrist, causing him to drop his fork on the center of the table. "Harry Potter will not be missing any of his dinner Weezy!" Ron pulled his hand back and rubbed his wrist, looking fondly at Harry as his friend continued to eat his meal, grinning all the while. Neville joined them at the table, laughing at Ron's predicament with the territorial elf. Dobby squinted his eyes at Ron before loosening his stern stance, "Does Weezy want Dobby's food for dinner?" Ron nodded enthusiastically and Dobby turned and looked at Neville, Ginny, and Hermione.

"Dobby," began Hermione, evenly, "if it wouldn't be too much trouble, and only on Sundays unless you feel like gracing us with your excellent cooking." Ron frowned at being limited to only Sundays but he changed his tune when Hermione kicked him under the table. Dobby nodded happily, his ears flapping slightly, and popped away again. Soon their plates were replaced with ones similar to Harry, Ron's and Neville's containing a slightly larger portion of roast beef, and the girls containing slightly less. Hermione noticed and asked Harry "Why the change in proportions? Not that I'm complaining, I have no idea how Ron puts that much food away." While she waited for Harry to chew his food their drinks were also replaced with the mysterious green sludge Harry had in front of him.

Harry shrugged and took a pull at his drink before speaking, "I asked him that once when Neville and I had lunch in the Room of Requirement, apparently House Elves, if entirely in control of their, err, employer's diet can control it in a way that they get the most out of their food based on their daily activity levels. On workout days I don't know how I finish my meals sometimes. The drink is a vegetable fruit smoothie, tastes different every day but you can't ever taste the veggies." Hermione smiled and dug into her food, happy that someone was taking care of Harry even when he didn't want it. The five discussed the week ahead of them, Hermione trying to wheedle information about their upcoming Defense class out of Harry. Harry danced around the issue until he heard footsteps behind him.

"Professor, if it is all the same to you I would like to start my detention sooner rather than later." Harry turned in his seat and saw Draco standing behind them, arms crossed, looking like he had better things to do. Harry suppressed a grin at this and stood and gestured for Draco to lead the way, taking his vegetable fruit smoothie with him.

The trip to the DADA classroom passed in silence and when they arrived Harry again gestured at Draco who took a seat in the front row and waited while Harry disappeared into his office. When he returned he was hefting a textbook, which he placed in front of Draco before leaning on his own desk at the front of the room. "What is this then Pot…Professor? A muggle text? What is Biology?" Draco looked like he couldn't decide on being confused or disgusted.

"Biology is the muggle study of life. It studies how plants grow, how humans and animals reproduce, the effects of the sun on plants and people, things like that. Your assignment is to read the four chapters that cover genealogy, genetics, and DNA. You need to give me one chapter review a week, at least twelve inches, and then at the end of each chapter is a quiz to test your understanding of the subject matter, I'd like that as well. If you do it all this week, you're done. If you spread it out, that is fine too. You can turn them in to me in class if you don't want to waste time on Sunday evening." Harry watched Draco as he opened the book and flipped through until he found the first chapter that he was assigned.

"What is the point here Professor? You're just giving me more homework, did Professor Snape approve of this detention?" Draco looked more confused than angry, he didn't want to do the work but he realized he wasn't going to get anywhere by arguing. Harry nodded and wrote out the chapters that he wanted Draco to cover on a scrap of parchment from his desk before handing it to him.

"Yes, both your Head of House and the Headmaster have approved this detention. All I am doing is adding to your knowledge, and hopefully teaching you a lesson about defying me in class. That is the point of detention anyway, behavior modification. Personally I think that you already learned that lesson in class this week by dueling me, but I couldn't let you get by without detention or your friends would also begin to act up. So like I said, you can complete the assignment as quickly as you want as long as I have at least one chapter a week. Do you have any questions?" Draco looked at the book and the slip of parchment Harry had handed him and then shook his head. "Then you are dismissed. If you want to discuss anything that you've read my door is always open. If I'm not here I'd be happy to make an appointment to talk." Draco nodded this time and grabbed the book on his way out of the room. Harry renewed the charms protecting his office and soon followed Draco out of the classroom, leaving the door open for anyone that might want to sneak in and snog with their beloved.

Harry started walking through the castle without a destination in mind, letting his mind wander as he feet carried him along the stone corridors. He tapped Elena and after pleasantries dove right in to what was bothering him. "_I think that I'm absorbing stray thoughts. I don't mean to, but my opinions on certain subjects don't seem to be what I expect and I have to suspect some sort of interference." _

Elena chuckled along the link before replying, "_What makes you think that Harry? Starting to notice girls are you?" _Harry blustered back at here and then sent her the burst of information about his changing ideas about Draco. "_I see what you mean. You have no reason to think anything but the worst of him. Perhaps this is just you growing up and being more mature about things. Maybe your subconscious is reevaluating your memories of certain people and giving you different information when you call upon it consciously."_ Harry thought about this for a while, thanking Elena for her input and dropping the connection. Eventually his feet took him to the Astronomy tower and he spent some time staring out over the grounds. He could see light in Hagrid's cabin and if he listened hard enough he could hear Fang's excited barks carry across the open lake.

"Oh…hi Harry, I didn't expect you up here." Harry turned to Luna's voice, finding the small blonde girl standing at the top of the stairs. He motioned her over and she leaned on the parapet next to him, watching the firelight flicker in Hagrid's windows.

"How are the shields holding up Luna? You having any trouble keeping them active?" She shook her head and turned her gaze to the stars, waiting patiently for clouds to move out of the way so she could see her favorite constellations. That was one of the things Harry liked most about being out here away from everything, there wasn't a lot of light to wash out the stars above. "You haven't been chased out of your tower again have you? I could say something, I'm a professor you know." Luna grinned at him and shook her head.

"No, I always take walks like this on nice evenings. Usually my housemates took advantage of my absence to play pranks, but since your lessons last year I've learned to defend myself and ward my trunk. Now you've taught me how to focus my attention so I'm enjoying my classes much more than I used to. When I told my roommates about how I was having trouble because I couldn't stop reading everyone's minds they got a bit scared of what I might know and have been treating me nicely since then." Harry let out a chuckle and turned to face her.

"Yeah, Professor Flitwick brought up your sudden attention span at the staff meeting on Friday. I took the blame for it and everyone seemed to be impressed. Flitwick is nothing but pleased that one of his 'Claws is even brighter now. I'm glad your roommates have left you alone, but you'll tell us if something happens right? Ginny, Neville, 'Mione, Ron, we're all here for you." She nodded and he turned to look back out over the lake. He glanced at his watch and realized that it was just about curfew, and while he didn't have to worry about it, Luna would. "It's about time to go back, why don't I walk you to the dorms so that Filch doesn't stop you. My privileges extend to an immunity to the curfew so I might as well make sure you don't get in trouble either." Luna nodded and they descended the stairs back to the main part of the castle.

The Ravenclaw tower was across the castle from the Astronomy tower, but they made it there without running into Filch or Mrs. Norris. Harry stood at a respectful distance while she conversed with their dorm guardian and only turned to leave once she was safely inside. He looked around, and mentally checked the outside of the 7th floor corridor where the Gryffindor common room was hidden and when he found both hallways empty he pushed himself to just outside of his common room. He waved to his friends as he wandered past, wishing them a good night, before he made his way to his room and promptly fell asleep.

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading, please don't forget to leave a review and favorite/follow the story if you're enjoying yourself! -PP**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Sorry for the long break between updates, finally graduating from my Master's program and moving back home has delayed me from posting the chapter. I hope that you all enjoy the new one and I look forward to reading some reviews!**

**Edit: I got some flak this week from reviewers (across various chapters) about only having one person speaking per paragraph. While this is generally what you should do and how your English teachers will teach you, it is not actually a grammar rule. As long as I am not confusing my reader, I can have 200 people speaking in one long, drawn-out paragraph if I wanted. I left one example in this chapter to show my point. **

**I don't have a beta reader, if my style choices are getting your knickers in a twist please PM me and offer your services. I'd prefer the reviews be on the quality of the narrative and not the misplacement of my commas and/or my paragraph structure. I am only human after all.  
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**To all of you who have expressed your enjoyment, please disregard the above, it was not directed at you and I hope you enjoy the story, warts and all.**

**-PP**

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><p>The next week for Harry was similar to the first. His students were all excited for their Defense classes and he was energized by their enthusiasm. His own classes were a bit more of a struggle for him, however. Hermione got frustrated with his seemingly dismissive attitude toward their lessons during the theory sections. He attempted to placate her, but when he had no more trouble than she did performing spells during their practical lessons she was nearly inconsolable. "Hermione, I'm really not doing this on purpose, it is just how my brain works now. I memorized the texts over the summer so I have all the theory at hand when I need it."<p>

This wasn't what Hermione needed to hear however, Harry was taking shortcuts and she didn't feel that it was fair. "How can we compete Harry? You've probably got the entire Hogwarts library in there." At this she poked his head, Neville took the opportunity to make a hollow sound with his tongue. Harry glared at Neville as they continued from Transfiguration to the Great Hall for lunch.

"For one, it is not a competition so please don't think that I'm going against you in class Hermione. Secondly, once you have your occlumency down I will show you how to memorize books. No, you won't have the capacity that I have, per usual I'm a freak of nature. You will probably only get a dozen or so books for instant recall. The rest of the information, including what you've already got in there, can be organized so that you can recall the information better. I'm not holding anything back from you guys, you just aren't ready yet." Hermione made a gruff noise and forcefully dug into her grilled chicken salad that Dobby had prepared for the group for lunch. Harry groaned, "Really Hermione, the only things that I have that you don't are some theory assignments from the Headmaster because he wanted me to start thinking out of the box. Ever since I came back from the institute it is like he is hell-bent on showing me that magic is just as useful as psionics." At this point Harry was gesticulating wildly with his fork causing Ron to duck.

Hermione giggled at this and treated her salad a bit better. "I'm just used to being the top of the class Harry, I liked being able to help you." At this point Ron, Neville, and Harry were looking at her incredulously. As far as they were concerned that was the exact opposite of how she felt for the last five years.

"You mean to tell me," began Ron, causing Hermione to look up from the book she was reading as she ate, "That all the crap you gave me about asking you for help was a ruse? I nearly failed potions third year because you held out on your notes for two weeks!" Hermione had frozen with her fork halfway to her mouth, unsure of how to react to Ron's sudden rant. She sputtered a few times before Ron's face broke into a grin and he started to laugh, which spread to the rest of the group save Hermione. "You deserved that. Yes, I know I should do my homework on time, I know what you were trying to do. I will still ask you for help even if I don't need it." Hermione responded very maturely, by throwing a crouton at him, bouncing it off of his face.

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><p>Later that week Harry's friends all filed into the 6th year NEWT Defense class, Harry stood at the front and leaned against his desk while the class filled. When they were all settled in he raised his hands for silence and got it relatively quickly. "Since you are my NEWT students, I expect you all to be able to do some self-study with the Syllabus. If you are having trouble we would love to have you at the study session on Saturday nights, save for Hogsmeade weekends. For the next few weeks, however, I will be handing your tutelage over to a good friend of mine, and my associate Defense professor, Professor Elena Smith. She will be helping you with the foundations of Occlumency. You will be mine again the first class of October, but until then you will focus on the defense of your mind. Any questions?"<p>

Lisa Turpin raised her hand and Harry gestured for her to speak up, "What is Occlumency and how will it help us in Defense?" Harry had expected this and went into an explanation of the art of defending your mind, "If you don't defend your thoughts, a practiced Legillimens can pick out your spells before you cast them and have a counter ready before your spell leaves your wand. This is one of the major advantages Voldemort has over many of his opponents as neither Occlumency nor Legillimency are widely known subjects." The class paled at the thought of their minds being read and sat a little straighter in their chairs. "Our goal here is to keep you from broadcasting your tactics, we don't expect you to build mental fortresses that would defend against a concentrated assault, but keeping your plans to yourself can keep you alive in any duel. Once you finish with this section of my class we will move on to getting rid of those pesky physical tells that can broadcast your aim."

The class nodded along with this and Harry gave a few examples of how intentionally using a physical tell could lead your opponent into a trap. When they were ready for their Occlumency tuition Harry tapped Elena, who had waited in his office, and she came into the room and joined Harry at the front of the class. Harry had by now pulled himself onto his desk where he sat cross-legged across his blotter and gestured for Elena to begin.

She went through a lot of the explanation that Snape had for him the year before, but with her she actually explained how to clear your mind and covered the basics of meditation. When she called for everyone to close their eyes and imagine a peaceful image to focus on, Harry climbed off of his desk and began to walk the classroom, nudging a few students awake and correcting the posture of a few more who were never going to get relaxed enough in the positions that they were in. At this point Elena was speaking inside their minds though with their eyes closed they couldn't tell that her lips weren't moving. The double period passed quickly for the meditating students, and when the class broke it was a very relaxed group of students who got their things ready to leave.

"Read at least the first three chapters of your Occlumency for the Occluded texts for next week, and practice these meditation techniques every night before bed, or when you have time to try it out. Next week I will be testing your shields. As long as you aren't broadcasting then my job has been a success. After we are done in a few weeks I will stop by once or twice a term for surprise inspections so don't think that you can stop once I've gone." Elena called over the din of the students gathering their belongings to leave. Harry waved his friends on, explaining that he needed to discuss the class with Professor Smith before heading down to lunch.

"Well that went smoothly." He grinned, flicking his wand and conjuring a chair for her across from him at his desk. She sat down and crossed her legs and nodded.

"Yes, you must have set your foot down last week because those students were all willing to learn despite there being no real spellwork involved." Harry shrugged and Elena changed the subject, "How are you holding up? With all the extra responsibilities being thrust upon you, you doing okay?"

Harry sat back and thought about the last two weeks and the way that he had gone from running around frantically to being prepared for all of his classes, both the ones he was teaching in and the ones he was learning in. "Yeah, I mean it was hectic at first but I've learned how to better manage my time, I'm getting all my homework done on time and all of my professors have noticed that I've been working extra hard in their classes so even when I'm a little late they don't give me hell for it."

Elena grinned, "Glad to hear it. The boys tell me that the Institute is too quiet without you. None of the new students are any good at that game you four spent too much time playing over the summer and they haven't been having too much fun without you." Harry shook his head, laughing quietly.

"Yeah I've talked to them almost every day, I miss them to death, I never felt like a kid much before I was able to spend my summer with those guys. With Dudley I had the figure of a big brother but none of the support, Ron and the Weasleys treat me like family, and I feel the same way about them, but no matter how they hide it they know that I'm "The-Boy-Who-Lived". With the guys I feel like I have real brother figures, they don't treat me differently because of who I am or what I can do and that probably affected me more than anything else this summer. Do me a favor, tell them to stop by Hogwarts on Saturday night, they bailed on me last week and I need Mark here so I can help him with his magic." Elena stopped with whatever she was about to say and quirked an eyebrow at him.

"You're helping Mark with his magic? He never seemed interested in learning before, he was more than content working on his psionics. Did you say something to change his mind?" Harry looked at his hands for a minute and Elena tapped him to get his attention. _"Does this have anything to do with the memories you showed the boys? They won't tell me what they saw and they all seemed really worried about you."_ Harry frowned at his hands before looking up and meeting his friend's eyes. He expanded their connection and pushed memories toward her, Voldemort coming back, Sirius falling through the veil, Voldemort possessing him, Dumbledore telling him the prophecy. She sat quietly for a minute assimilating the information. She knew about Black, but she had more context now and understood the burden one of her favorite pupils was under.

"He wanted to have more options to fight with, he wants to learn to use them in tandem to keep things unexpected. I made a whole syllabus of spells for him, that is where I got the idea for class. He was supposed to be working on them without me, and I want to check his progress when they come to visit." Harry was wringing his hands now and when he realized what he was doing he stopped and placed them flat on the desk in front of him. "I don't want to drag them into my fight, but if I try to push them away they'll come at the first sign of danger, no plan at all, hoping to do as much damage as possible with shock and awe. I can't let them get hurt but I can't stop them either."

Elena came around the desk and gave him a quick hug, "I'll talk to them for you, sometimes tapping can be so impersonal." He nodded and composed himself. "Lets get to lunch before Dobby comes to hunt you down." Harry laughed and linked his elbow around hers and together they walked out of the classroom and down to the Great Hall.

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><p>As promised Harry's three friends from the summer turned up at dinner on Saturday night. Whispering spread throughout the crowded dining hall until Harry stood and raced toward the three teens, throwing himself into Simon's arms. "Oh my hero, you came. When you hadn't written me…" this was as far as he got before Simon dropped him on the floor and walked around him, taking his place at the table and accepting a plate from Dobby. "Prat." Harry stated simply, picking himself up off of the floor.<p>

Simon held up a finger and chewed and swallowed as the table budged down so Harry could sit down again, "You deserved it." Harry shrugged and grinned before taking up his utensils again forking food into his mouth. Simon greeted those that he knew and did his best to ignore the stares he was getting from the female population of Hogwarts. He leaned over to Harry and whispered, "All of these girls are staring at me…it's a bit creepy."

Harry laughed and looked up at Simon, batting his eyes, "But Sy, you're such a big strong bloke. It is entirely your fault you look like you stepped out of a Witch Weekly romance story." Simon growled at him and punched his shoulder. "Oww! That is abuse on a professor that is, I'll have Filch lock you up in the dungeons." Filch, who had been passing by at the time perked up at Harry's words so he quickly added, "Juuuust kidding Filchy, nobody is getting the chains tonight. If you're good maybe I'll go find a Death Eater for you to string up." Filch frowned and continued down the aisle and out of the hall, grumbling all the way.

Simon turned his back on Harry and began talking to the closest witch, who happened to be Lavender Brown. Ironically she was acting much like Harry had when they arrived but since she was actually attractive, and female, he didn't mind. Mark was talking to Luna and Ginny, hearing stories about Harry that he hadn't heard yet, and Coggy was just finishing getting an explanation of the DA's original incarnation from Hermione. He looked over at Harry who was finishing his smoothie, obnoxiously sucking the last bits through his straw and making a lot of noise. "Do you always act like a child, or only when we are around?" Harry grinned and said nothing, continuing his one man band routine. "So which two do Simon and I get to mold into real men?"

Harry pulled his straw from his glass and pointed it first at Neville, and then at Ron. "There are your Play-Dough sets, oh he of big muscles and tiny brains." Coggy pushed with his mind and knocked Harry back out of his seat on the bench, causing him to land on his back with his legs still draped over the bench, laughing to himself. Coggy then turned to Neville and Ron who had looks that screamed 'who me?' plastered on their faces.

"Harry has asked Simon and I to get you two into the shape of his choosing so that he can rely on you to not get dead. It won't be fun, but discipline rarely is. In a few months you will thank us in the form of Jaffa cakes and crisps." The two wizards in question merely nodded their heads dumbly, unsure of how to react, or what Jaffa Cakes were. By this time everyone had finished eating and Dumbledore called for them to vacate their seats so he could arrange the tables. Coggy called for Dobby and instructed him to kit out the two boys in exercise clothes and Dobby complied with a snap of his fingers. "Come on Rozencrantz and Guildenstern, Harry tells me there is a Quiddich pitch that is great for laps." The two boys groaned and followed Coggy as he jogged out of the hall, Simon followed them and helped them keep pace.

The study groups formed themselves and after the first week were pretty autonomous. Hermione came to the area Harry had set aside for his tutelage of Mark, "That is why you made sure their homework was all done before dinner, wasn't it?" Harry nodded and turned back to Mark correcting his grip on is wand and had him go through the wand movements of a few spells. "Why," began Hermione again, "Do you think that Ginny, Luna, and I don't need the same kind of molding? Also…Rozencrantz? Guildenstern?" Harry sighed and turned to his best friend.

"Firstly, Rozencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a fantastic play you should look into. Secondly, you three aren't physically built like they are, if you were built like Bulstrode, sure, but you aren't. You are agility fighters not strength fighters. After I give Mark a whirlwind tour of blasting hexes he and I are going to work on psionics with you three so go get your tutoring in before I drag you away in an hour." Hermione opened her mouth to argue, thought better of it, and hurried off to help students with Ancient Runes. Harry rolled his eyes as he turned back to Mark, "Women." He shook his head and conjured some targets for Mark to blast into pieces. "Show me what you've got Tiny." Mark glared at him and flicked his wand, transfiguring the targets into replicas of Harry's head. Harry grinned at this, "Cheeky bugger."

Mark went through his syllabus in order, causing the targets to do everything from levitate to combust to transfigure into slabs of stone. Harry nodded and flicked his wand, bringing up a shield to separate them from the rest of the Great Hall. "Bring everything you've got, psionics, magic, whatever just do your best to bring me down." Mark nodded gravely and, with no warning at all, attempted to trip Harry up with a mental tug at his feet. Harry spun with the motion and sent a spell Mark didn't recognize straight at his chest. The blond boy dodged out of the way, firing a string of spells back at Harry as he readjusted his position. It went on like this for ten minutes, spells sparking against the shield as the boys danced around each other, sometimes by choice, often because they were manipulating each other. Much of the original DA was used to Harry's dueling techniques, but as they stopped studying and started observing the duel they noticed that something had changed, spells seemed to glide around his form, never fully connecting.

McGonagall, the appointed chaperone for the study session that week, had sent her Patronus after the Headmaster and Professor Flitwick at the three minute mark, and the two came in at nearly the same time near the nine minute mark. Flitwick grinned as he saw a spell chain that he had mentioned to Harry at breakfast that morning break Mark's shield. Dumbledore was astounded at the display the two teens were putting on, he mused to himself that this must be what it feels to watch him duel someone of a high caliber. Suddenly the light stopped flying and it took a second for the Headmaster to see what had happened, Harry had snuck a stunner past Mark's more than adequate defences, knocking the blond boy against the shield and off of his feet. Harry summoned his wand and canceled the shield spell, walking over and ennervating his friend. "Tonks has been training you, hasn't she?" Harry accused as he pulled his friend to his feet.

Mark blushed slightly and nodded sheepishly, "I wasn't making a lot of progress so I contacted her and asked if she would be willing to give me some tutelage. She's a really good teacher and I had a lot to catch up on." Harry nodded, glad that there was someone on site to kick Mark's butt if he fell behind. He made a note to himself to send Tonks some chocolate and flowers. Harry beckoned the girls over and had Mark start on their tutelage, showing them how to project their mind and use it to manipulate objects. They started small but they were all determined, by the end of the lesson Hermione would be making a brick dance around her to some unheard tune.

Harry left them in Mark's capable hands and walked over to where Neville and Ron were being run ragged by Simon and Coggy. They were sweat soaked and each had been equipped with weapons of medieval warfare, Neville with a large axe and Ron with a kite shield and sword. They were sparring with one another, each interaction being corrected by their tutors, correcting their stance and posture to help them keep their balance. Harry approached them and they relaxed their posture and turned to him, "Having fun you two?" he asked, grinning widely.

"There is no way that they made you learn how to use this stuff, why would they?" asked Ron incredulously, panting heavily as he did so. Harry flicked his wand at the Great Hall doors and a few seconds later the Sword of Gryffindor came flying into the room and into his outstretched hand.

"Most wizards won't know what to do if you get within striking distance of them with a weapon like this, one of the things that Godric was most famous for was tricking his opponents into allowing him to get close, and then he would finish the job with his sword. Headmaster would you mind demonstrating?" Dumbledore nodded and faced off with Harry, drawing his wand and giving the youngest professor a nod to indicate he was ready.

With an incredible burst of speed Harry was moving towards the Headmaster, dodging the spells that were being cast at him with alarming agility. Harry took a circuitous route to Dumbledore but he was soon close enough to bat the Headmaster's wand hand away from him and place the flat of his blade against the old wizard's neck. The room had gone silent at this astonishing display of speed, the entire duel lasting mere seconds. The Headmaster yielded and Harry withdrew the blade and bowed to him. "As you can see, even our esteemed Headmaster would have a problem dealing with someone that came in close, this is an advantage that I want you two to own. If this were a real duel Professor Dumbledore would have wandlessly banished me when I got within a few feet though, so you should keep that in mind."

The grin that flashed on Dumbledore's face betrayed that he could have indeed sent the boy flying, but played along to allow him to prove his point. "Even still Harry, you were much faster than I expected. If you boys can tie in some spells with your approach you should be able to keep your opponent off guard long enough to end the duel." Ron and Neville were standing and staring at the two men who had just casually displayed both speed and power. They nodded grimly and faced off again, swinging their weapons and probing defenses.

The warning bell for curfew rang a few minutes later and the rest of the school snapped out of their mesmerized trance and began filing out of the hall. Ron and Neville shook hands with their new instructors, and promised to join Harry in the morning and to practice a few times during the week on their technique. Harry collected the three boys and walked them down to the gates before giving them hugs and promising to come visit during the next Hogsmeade weekend. Mark, Simon, and Coggy waved one last time before striding toward the village, fading out of sight as they translocated back to the Institute.

Harry pushed himself through the wards and found himself in his dorm room. He grinned at his two friends as they were passed out in their four posters, still in their clothes and dead to the world. He climbed into bed himself and yawned, falling to sleep himself as Mark tapped him to let him know they were all safely in their rooms. He meant to respond, he really did, but his bed seemed to pull him in and he was asleep before the thought could cross his mind.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: It has been a while since my last update. I've had quite a busy few years and some recent reviews have incentivized me to write some more. I've also made a few friends recently who have been encouraging my writing hobby. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter right now, so please leave me a review so that I can get an idea of how my readers feel about it. Thanks.

-PP

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><p>The first Hogsmeade weekend fell on the last week in September and Harry was glad to see the first month's end. Ron and Hermione were celebrating her birthday belatedly, as a couple, and Harry was happy to see them walking down to the village in front of him, a grin on his face. Ginny had made plans with a fifth year Ravenclaw, William Webb who had met her in the entrance hall and they were already off on their own. Neville had been asked by Susan Bones to accompany her to the village, which had surprised everyone, including Neville. He was thinking about his friends and how they were slowly growing up and apart when he felt a small hand snake into his and grip it firmly. He looked to his right and found the hand was attached to Luna who was now pulling him toward the village.<p>

"Come on Harry, no time to mope about we've got things to do." Harry laughed and allowed himself to be led down the path from the castle. They strolled slowly through the streets of Hogsmeade, looking in the windows of some shops and going into others. True to her House, Luna spent a lot of time in the bookstore, though not where Harry had expected her to go. She loaded what seemed like half of the new releases from the fiction section into Harry's arms before dragging him to the checkout queue. "Charge it to the Quibbler account Tobias, for…research." The old man nodded and scribbled out a receipt and had her sign it. He shrunk the books and handed them to Luna who dropped them into the hip pocket of her jeans.

"Where to now? Please don't say Madame Puddifoot's." Harry grinned as he retook Luna's hand and continued down the main street of Hogsmeade. He felt normal for the first time since Sirius fell through the veil. His heart wasn't as heavy as it once was, he didn't feel like he had a target on his back and he was genuinely enjoying his day out. He was about to thank Luna for the company and the time out when he felt a lot of aggression suddenly appear in the center of town. He barely had time to turn toward the presence when he heard the calls go out, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" Green light shot out in every direction from the center of Hogsmeade.

Instinct took over for Harry and he willed a wall between the attacking Death Eaters and the students who were reacting, just not nearly as fast as Harry was. Time seemed to slow as the spells flew through the air. Half of the first volley made it past his shield but the rest was redirected toward the sky. His PPK was in his hand before he realized he had drawn it. Tug, recoil, Death Eater down. Tug, recoil, Death Eater down. He walked calmly toward the group of terrorists and emptied his clip into the group. The Pureblood extremists didn't know what he was hitting them with but the last few had managed to deflect his shots with their shields. Half their number was on the ground with holes in their chests and blood staining the grass. This was supposed to be a quick shock and awe attack but it had ended before it began, and headed toward them without an ounce of mercy was a stone faced Harry Potter.

Harry growled as he saw the first few flee with their emergency portkeys and reached out with his mind. He found their essences winking away on a magical bungee cord and he grabbed them with all of his mental might and tugged as hard as he could. As soon as they were gone they were back again, sprawled on the ground and groaning. Flicking his wand he summoned the Death Eater's wands and the remaining port keys and gathered them in his satchel. Veteran members of the DA had arrived at this point and began binding the Death Eaters with ropes before Harry could order them to do just that.

Looking around Harry surveyed the aftermath of the short battle. The curses that had escaped his shield had nearly all struck inanimate objects, one had hit home however. Sullenly Harry made his way over to the small form that had been racing towards the door of the Three Broomsticks. Gently he turned the young girl's body over and gently closed her eyes with his hand. She was a third year Slytherin, actually quite a bright girl who hadn't acted out when his classes began a month before. He was still crouched over her when he heard the pops of apparition and looked over his shoulder to find an Auror squad looking dumbfounded. Harry looked at his watch and saw that their response time was only about 5 minutes; Madame Bones must have had a team ready to go should an alarm be sounded.

Standing he walked over to them and recognized Kingsley along with the Auror that had tried to arrest Dumbledore the year before, Dwalish. He walked up to his fellow Order member and nodded at him gravely, "Hey Shack, the assailants popped into town about five minutes ago and blind fired a barrage of killing curses into the crowd. I drew my sidearm and began returning fire. I must have spooked them or confused them with either my resistance or my weapon and those three," he gestured to the ones that weren't bleeding, "attempted to flee via port key. Luckily I was able to stop them before they activated and the students I've been training in defense showed up to bind them and keep guard." Harry's eyes travelled around to his friends whose wands were still pointed at the downed Death Eaters, silently thanking them for their action.

"There is one casualty, a third year Slytherin girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Cassandra Wilkinson. She was a good kid, never acted out in class and was learning a lot from me, I wish I had acted faster." Harry shook his head and Kingsley laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Harry, you captured six Death Eater's with minimal casualties, you saved more lives than any of us could have, even with our increased response time. Don't beat yourself up for not being Superman." Harry sighed heavily but nodded to the Senior Auror. He knew he couldn't save everyone, but there was no reason a thirteen year old girl had to die, no matter the circumstances. He tapped the Headmaster and minutes later the Headmaster strode onto the green. Anger hardened his bright blue eyes as they scanned the scene in front of him. When they fell on the body of Cassandra he almost lost hold of his aura, Harry was being flooded by his mentor's emotions but on the outside he looked calm and collected.

"Auror Shacklebolt, thank you for your prompt response time, I see that Amelia has taken these threats seriously. Harry, can you tell me what happened?" Harry nodded and relayed his story, explaining how he noticed the incoming strike team and his attempts to prevent injury and loss of life. Dumbledore nodded as he finished his tale, "I know I don't need to tell you to make sure that you secure your weapon and don't let anyone get a hold of it. You have had special training to use it, but others, especially those from non-muggle backgrounds do not have any thought of the danger they could cause themselves if they got a hold of it."

Harry readily agreed, "Don't worry Headmaster, I know exactly the danger involved. I have a special government permit to even have a handgun; I had to take a ton of tests to show that I know what I'm doing and that I'm responsible. Now that you bring it up, I was wondering what the overall opinion of muggle weaponry is among wizarding kind." Dumbledore gestured to a nearby bench and the two wizards took a seat, watching the activity on the green as the Aurors identified the assailants and matched them with their wands before shipping them via port key to a holding area in the Ministry of Magic. The veteran members of the DA were comforting students that had been outside when the attack occurred, standing by as other Aurors took their statements. Both men smiled as the students banded together across house lines to ensure that everyone was ok. Members from all houses comforted the classmates of Cassandra, worried more for the well being of the younger students than they were for their petty rivalries.

"Muggleborns have been coming to Hogwarts since the time of the founders, and back in those days it wasn't uncommon for students of noble birth to be seen throughout the castle with a sword on their hip, it was their way of fitting in with their countrymen when they returned home after schooling. As muggle weaponry advanced so did the accessories of our students. Rules were made and broken about carrying firearms around the castle and they were cause for much strife between muggleborn/half-blood students and their pureblood counterparts. The purebloods, of course, believed magic to be the most powerful weapon and they saw no use for what they referred to as 'toys'." Dumbledore stopped here as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick arrived from the castle.

"Minerva, Filius, could you please organize the students and have them return to the castle? If you see Aberforth have him send up a few cases of Butterbeer on the school's tab. Advise the House Elves we will be having a memorial service after dinner for Ms. Wilkinson." The faces of the two Professors hardened as they glanced at the aurors and then nodded at Dumbledore and then McGonagall smiled at Harry, patting his shoulder before moving away to gather the students. "Now where was I Harry? Ah yes, so as time went on things evened out and muggleborns were less likely to have weapons of their own while in the teens beyond their wands and a knife, nothing more than any wizard in the school. Then the first World War began and our muggleborn Seventh years didn't return for their final year - most of them never made it back to finish their studies." Dumbledore looked off into them middle distance and Harry saw his eyes glisten before he began speaking again.

"As you probably know we were more involved in the Second World War. Grindelwald was involved and the queen recruited shock troopers from the Auror Corps to combat his troops, and the day Berlin fell Gellart and I had our final showdown. Those Aurors brought back stories of the horrible weapons the muggles had manufactured to bring pain and suffering to their enemies. The statute of secrecy was updated and laws were enacted along with the Geneva Convention that barred the use of biological weapons against wizarding kind. The protego charms of the aurors involved in the war were more than enough protection from bullets so firearms such as your handgun were never made illegal or of much concern to the average wizard. The point, Harry, of my very long story is that while purebloods may look down upon your using a muggle weapon to defend yourself, it is not inherently illegal or taboo."

Harry nodded and pointed as Professor Snape stalked onto the Green and stopped short as he saw the sheet over the small body being guarded by Aurors. He made to push through them but Dumbledore called him off. "Severus, if you would leave them to their duties I think Harry can tell you what you need to know." The grim professor frowned slightly and then made his way over to where they were sitting. Harry filled Professor Snape in on the attack, rolling his eyes at Snape's grimace when he explained that he shot half of the attackers before preventing their escape. "Why is it, Mr. Potter, that the only student that was not protected by this shield was one of my house?"

Harry stood and met eyes with the Potions Professor, his growth spurt over the summer negating the height advantage the man once had on him. "She was at the furthest side of the green and I was erecting a shield that would deflect a bloody KILLING CURSE. I am not a god Professor, and I don't pretend to be. There are limits to my power just like anything else and unfortunately one of my favorite students paid the price for that limit. If you could possibly think that I would let a student die just because of their house than you have no IDEA who I am or what I believe in." He turned to Dumbledore and nodded, "Headmaster." Before turning on his heel and storming out of the center of the village and towards the gates of Hogwarts.

"I think, Severus, that you may have been more than a little out of line." Commented Dumbledore, standing from the bench and stretching in the autumn sun. Snape just growled and crossed his arms, glaring at the Auror's keeping watch over the corpse of the sole victim of the attack.

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><p>Harry got halfway to the gates of Hogwarts before someone calling his name stopped him. Turning he saw Luna, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione jogging up the path behind him. Hermione, in her typical fashion, threw her arms around him when she got close enough, "Harry are you okay? That was crazy. We were waiting for you to finish talking to Kingsley and Dumbledore but then you got mad and stormed off." Harry squeezed her back before she let go and stepped back, her hand falling to meet Ron's. Luna slid into place next to him and wrapped her arm around his, leaning into him, silently lending him her strength and support. "I'm fine Hermione, I promise. Professor Snape was upset because one of his students needlessly lost her life and he took it out on the most convenient target. I can't blame him, I want to go to the Aurors' holding cells and beat some sense into those Death Eaters." Harry sighed heavily and looked up at the orange sky, a few post owls making their way from the owlery crossing his vision.<p>

"I know I can't save everyone, and I know that nobody expects me to, but I still feel like I should have done more. I spend time training but I'm going to spend some time re-thinking how I'm going to structure my training sessions. I need to be able to approach situations and evaluate them quicker than I did today. I may have hesitated for only a few seconds but those seconds could have saved Cassandra." All four of his friends began to speak but he put his hand up, "I know, I can't hold myself responsible, I'm not looking at the past, I'm looking forward and seeing how I can be better. Ron, I have some ideas for you and Neville, it is a litter bit unorthodox but it will be building on what you guys have been learning from Simon and Coggy." Harry turned and gave Luna a hug. "I'm going to go visit Professor Smith, I have a few things that I need to talk to her about. I'll be back before dinner, if you guys see any of the lower years of Slytherin tell them that I'll be stopping by later to check in on them." His friends readily agreed and he turned and translocated to the hallway outside of Elena's office.

He knocked and waited for Elena to answer before he opened the door and walked in. Dropping into one of her guest chairs he looked across the desk at her, the concerned look on her face told him that Dumbledore had already spoken to her about the events at Hogsmeade. After a few minutes of silently examining each other across the desk Elena broke the silence, "Do you want to talk about it?" Harry broke eye contact and looked down at his hands, flexing them on the arms of the chair before casting his eyes back up, "I did a lot of things today without much conscious thought. The shield? Sure, I've done that thousands of times, I know how strong it is. But I ripped those men back through the magic their port keys created and dumped them onto the ground. I have no idea how I did that, I'm a little bit scared of what I could do if I got mad at someone. My temper isn't exactly my best quality."

Elena touched her fingertips together and felt the worry flow from her pupil's psyche. "Harry, did you want to kill those men?" Harry sunk further into the chair, his hands continuing to flex on the chair arms. "I know whenever I draw my weapon that there is the possibility that someone may lose their life, but…no, I wanted to stop them. I wanted to protect the lives of the students and the people of the village." Elena nodded at this and took a moment to formulate her thoughts before speaking, "As you know, our power, the strength behind it and our ability to shape it is based entirely on our will and our intent. Magic works the same way, Dumbledore will tell you that. If you don't drive your magic or your psionic power with will and intent nothing will happen. If you blindly use your power as you did today, and your intent is to use less-than-lethal force then that is what will happen. Accidents happen of course, one of those terrorists could have landed on a shard of glass or hit their head exceptionally hard, but your direct action will be guided by your intent. Do not be afraid of the power you posses, embrace it, and it will not fail you."

"Thank you Elena, I appreciate your guidance. The students might need some grief counseling later on and the rest of the weekend if you have time to stop by." Elena agreed and Harry stood to leave. As he opened the door she spoke again, her soft voice causing him to pause halfway out the door, "You are no killer Harry. Any lives you take will be in the defense of yourself or, more likely, in the defense of others. Don't forget, you are a beacon for our side. If you ever need to talk I'll be here, and I'll stop by the castle after dinner for any students that feel the need to talk about what happened today. Please feel free to announce that at dinner when you get back." Harry turned and flashed a weak smile in her direction before continuing out the door and closing it behind him.

When he translocated back to the gates of Hogwarts the sun was beginning to set over the lake. He took his time climbing the path to the castle, not looking forward to the reactions and moods of his classmates. He was not looking forward to his Slytherin/Hufflepuff third years this week, Cassandra's empty seat already haunting him. As he entered the castle Dinner was already underway so he made his way to the Great Hall to join the rest of the school. Nearly every student in the room looked up as he entered but most of them returned to their meal after seeing whom it was. The walls were decorated in black and Slytherin green and students across the hall wore armbands of similar coloring. Harry made his way towards the Slytherin table and to the section where the third years congregated. He put a hand on the shoulder of Cassandra's best friend, Maggie, and asked how she was doing. In response she turned and flung her arms around his waist, burying her face into his jumper and sobbing. He shifted his hand and returned the hug as he explained to the students in earshot that Professor Smith would be by after dinner to schedule grief counseling for anyone that needed to talk.

Draco stalked down the table and sneered at Harry comforting his housemate, "Haven't you done enough damage Potter? It is because of you that we're one person short tonight." Shocked gasps spread through the hall as Draco's taunt had carried over the abnormally silent crowd of students. Snape had left his chair at the same time Draco stood to confront Harry and he made it to Draco's side in time to give Harry a slight shake of his head, causing the Assistant Professor to divert whatever response he had ready. "Draco, you know as well as the rest of us that we would be mourning the death of more students if it weren't for Professor Potter's quick acting and the actions of his Defense Group. This is not the way to honor the memory of one of our housemates. Return to your seat, we will discuss this further after dinner." Draco glared at his godfather for a long moment before turning on his heal and stalking back towards his friends. Snape gave Harry a curt nod and returned to his place at the head table. Harry followed him up and stood at the podium used for announcements.

"As I'm sure Headmaster Dumbledore has explained, we have unfortunately lost one of our family today in an attack on Hogsmeade. Cassandra was one of my most attentive students and was set to be the top of her year in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I for one will miss her in my classroom, as I'm sure the rest of you will miss her in yours," Harry paused ere to conjure an armband and slide it on his left arm, "For those of you in need of someone to talk to, Professor Smith will be around after dinner, please speak to her then to make an appointment for tomorrow. I am also available during my normal office hours this week if you need to talk about anything, Defense related or otherwise. Thank you." He stepped down from the stage and made his way over to the Gryffindor table where his friends had a place for him with a full plate of food under a stasis charm.

Thanking them profusely Harry dug enthusiastically into his meal, listening to his friends chatter on about the events of the day, lamenting the loss of a student, surprisingly few of them even mentioning that she was a Slytherin. Soon Harry was done eating and was enjoying spending the time with his friends without any responsibilities looming over his head. He knew as soon as he went to sleep Cassandra's death would be haunting him, but he knew that he would be able to handle it in time, fighting it as fact wasn't going to help anything. It wasn't until Hermione's hand was rubbing the back of his neck that he realized he had nodded off at the table. "Why don't you head to bed Harry, we'll be up in a bit, but you've had a longer day than the rest of us. Harry smiled at her and then looked around at the concerned faces of his housemates. He silently agreed and gave a wave as he stood before slowly making his way out of the Great Hall.

Exhausted, both physically and mentally, Harry didn't dare risk punching his way through the wards, as much as the idea appealed to him in his current state. He began to make his way up the moving staircase, being careful to avoid the hazards on the way. When he reached the seventh floor he became aware of the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs behind him. Reaching out he attempted to determine whether it was friend or foe based on the emotions they were emanating. When he felt nothing coming from his pursuer he relaxed, and when they reached the seventh floor he was leaning against the wall. "Hello Luna, turning in early as well?" The smile she returned in way of greeting invigorated him and he held his arm out to her, which she took and began dragging him down the hall.

"I am indeed Harry, and I thought that with all the excitement today it might do me some good to have an escort to ensure that I reach my dorm." Harry shook his head but followed her lead; that Ravenclaw tower was two floors below didn't seem to bother her. "You did good today Harry, you didn't let them get away, those men will pay for what they've done." Harry grimaced but silently agreed; pulling her into a hidden staircase that would take them down to the fifth floor. As they reached the tapestry that separated their path from the main corridor Luna tugged at his hand, stopping him from stepping through. He turned to her and raised his eyebrow, "Harry, our date today did not end the way that I planned." She pushed his back against the wall and looked up into his eyes. Her shield faltered momentarily and a wave of nervous anxiety washed over him and, smiling down at her, he took the initiative.

Wrapping his arms around her, Harry lifted her slightly into him, shifting one hand to brush her hair back before dropping his lips to hers, closing his eyes as he kissed her. It began as a soft, exploratory action, but before long it became eager and Harry had Luna held against the wall, bracing her there with his body as they melted into each other. Words escaped them as they smashed their lips together, Luna making small noises of pleasure as their activities continued. Harry's hands slid under her jumper, tickling her as he traced his way around her waist to the small of her back. Luna's arms hooked around his neck, holding him in place as her lips trailed

Some time later they were coming down from their high, lips bruised from over use and small smiles on their faces. "Come on," Harry said, taking her hand and pulling her through the tapestry, "Let's get you to your dorm before you turn into a pumpkin." This elicited laughter from the younger girl who practically skipped the last fifty yards to the passage that lead to the guardian of Ravenclaw tower. Harry pulled Luna into a hug before slowly letting her go, stealing a final kiss before watching her walk away. As she reached for the bronze knocker she threw one last mischievous grin over her shoulder before she answered whatever riddle it asked and slipped into her common room.

The grin on Harry's face remained the entire way back to the Fat Lady who simply raised an eyebrow at his goofy look as he gave her the password. Still early on a Saturday evening, the common room was relatively empty as he made his way across and up to his dorm room. Once he was in bed he began his now nightly ritual of clearing his mind and organizing his memories. As he reviewed the battle he made mental notes of things he could work on. Before long he was pulling his blankets higher and slowly allowing sleep to overtake him. By the time Ron and Neville made it back to the tower to check on him, he was fast asleep.


End file.
